THE
LUMINARY
UNIVERSIT Y OF MALTA ALUMNI NEWSLET TER
www.um.edu.mt/alumni
JULY 2013
Xiamen Day celebrated at UoM
The University of Malta held a celebration dedicated
to Xiamen University on Wednesday, 26 June 2013. A
ceremony to mark the occasion was held at Sir Temi
Zammit Hall.
Professor Juanito Camilleri, Rector of the University
of Malta, delivered the welcome speech which was
followed by addresses made by Professor Yang
Zhenbin, Chairman of Xiamen University Council, by
H.E. Cai Jinbiao, Ambassador of the People’s Republic
of China, and by the Hon. Evarist Bartolo, Minister for
Education and Employment.
Music and dance performances from the University
of Malta’s School of the Performing Arts and
performances by students from Xiamen University
followed. Afterwards a souvenir exhibition of
photographs was inaugurated at the Library. These
photographs were taken in China during the University
of Malta Week held in Xiamen University, in July 2012.
The Maltese delegation, composed of senior officials,
members of academic staff and students, representing
the various Faculties and Institutes, had participated in
events of a socio-cultural and academic nature on and
around the magnificent campus of Xiamen University.
The University of Malta and Xiamen University
established formal relations in 2009 following the
decision of the University of Malta and Hanban (the
HQ of the Confucius Institutes worldwide) to set up a
Confucius Institute at the University of Malta. Xiamen
University was chosen as the University of Malta’s
partner university in China, within this agreement.
Since then, Xiamen University has been providing the
Institute with lecturers in Chinese language and culture
and with the Chinese Co-Director of the Institute.
The Academic Delegation present for Xiamen University
Day was accompanied by fifteen Chinese students who
will be following a brief tailor-made Summer School
entitled ‘Malta Through the Ages in its Mediterranean
Context’, held at the Valletta Campus. This will consist
of short but intensive exposure to the main highlights
of Maltese archaeology and history. Some lectures on
History of Art in Malta will be delivered. The Summer
School also includes a number of site visits.
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JULY 2013
Faculty of Arts’ Dean’s List
The Dean’s List awards for the Faculty of Arts were
recently presented by the Dean of The Faculty, Professor
Dominic Fenech.
This year, three students qualified for the Dean’s List.
They are Mr Glen Bonnici (B.A. Honours Italian), Ms
Yanika Bugeja (B.A. Honours Philosophy) and Ms Giulia
Privitelli (B.A. Honours History of Art). These students
will be graduating in November 2013.
Presenting the awards Professor Fenech explained
that, with at least two-thirds of the credits of the first
two years obtained at Grade ‘A’ or higher, only the very
top students, about one in a hundred, qualified to have
their name included in the Dean’s List. Congratulating
the students, he noted with satisfaction that all three of
them hailed from what some call the south of Malta, an
area where student enrolment into university courses
was relatively low. He wished them the very best in
their future studies and careers.
The Dean also warmly thanked Bank of Valletta for
their sponsorship, noting that this was the sixteenth
year that the bank acted as the sole sponsor of
this prestigious academic award. Representing the
sponsors, Ms Vanessa Macdonald, Head of Media and
Community Relations, explained that Bank of Valletta
was happy to support academic excellence among
students in general, and in particular was delighted
to be the sole sponsor of the Faculty of Arts Dean’s
List. Bank of Valletta believed that good academic
preparation was the foundation of a successful career
for students and a support for the country’s social and
economic progress. She added her congratulations and
presented the students with cash prizes.
Institute Publishes New Journal of Baroque Studies
The International Institute for Baroque Studies at the
University of Malta has just published the first issue of
The Journal of Baroque Studies.
This peer-reviewed academic journal is edited by Professor Frans Ciappara. It contains six original articles
and a section on book reviews.
The contributions are by Prof. Elizabeth Tingle of the
University of Plymouth, who writes about Sainthood
and Politics in the Baroque: The cult of St Vincent Ferrer in Brittany, France; Prof. Patrick Preston of the University of Chichester, who discusses the terms CounterReformation and Baroque; Prof. Paola Vismara of the
University of Milan, who engages with Miracles and
Prodiges sacres en pays de mission a l’epoque moderne; Prof. Denis De Lucca, the director of the International Institute for Baroque Studies, who examines The
dissemination of Jesuit military mathematics from the
Collegio Romano to the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy,
1600-1750; Prof. Anne Jacobson Schutte of the University of Virginia, who writes about Virtual voyages to Loreto: How to visit the
Holy House in Spirit
(Seventeenth-Eighteenth
Centuries)and
Prof. Franco Bruni of
the Ecole Française de
Rome, who deals with
Il Repertorio Musicale della Cattedrale di
Mdina (Malta) nel XVII
Secolo.
The journal is on sale
at leading booksellers
and online.
The Elisabeth Mann Borgese Bursary 2013
The International Ocean Institute (IOI) is once again
offering the Elisabeth Mann Borgese Bursary consisting
of a sum of Euros 3,500 which may be used in furthering
research studies in ocean/marine/maritime related
studies over the period of a year at UoM. Further
information and application forms may be obtained
through the IOI Website or by sending an email to IOI
HQ. The application deadline is Friday 20 July 2013.
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JULY 2013
Dual Master Degrees Award Ceremony at Valletta Campus
The Recognition Ceremony for students pursuing collaborative masters degrees that make up the International Masters Programme (IMP) was held on 6th
June at the Valletta Campus of the University of Malta.
This occasion celebrated the completion of the taught
component of each of the four dual masters degrees
that currently make up the International Masters Programme.
Students following the MA in Integrated Marketing Communications with
San Diego State, the MSc in Sustainable
Environmental Resources Management
with James Madison University, the MA
in Transcultural Counselling with Maryland University and the MA in Conflict
Resolution and Mediterranean Security
with George Mason University received
their transcripts from Prof Juanito
Camilleri, Rector of the University of
Malta. Present for the ceremony were
University Pro-Rectors, local and overseas professors involved in the different programmes together with relatives
SCIENCE DEAN’S AWARDS
This year’s award winners were: in Year I, Janet Chetcuti and
Glen Farrugia (Mathematics & Statistics & Operations Research);
Maria Sultana (Mathematics & Physics). In Year II, Aaron Brincat
(Biology & Chemistry); Glorianne Bugeja (Physics & Statistics
& Operations Research) and Kurt Fenech (Mathematics &
Physics). In Year III, Mark Bajada (Chemistry & Physics); Sarah
Cassar (Computer Science & AI & Mathematics) and Daniel Pace
(Mathematics & Statistics & Operations Research). In Year IV,
Josianne Farrugia (Banking & Finance & Statistics & Operations
Research); Byron Magri (Mathematics & Physics) and Glorianne
Micallef (Biology & Chemistry). The BOV Prize for Science was
awarded to Mr John Gabarretta.
and friends of the students. During the ceremony four
overseas students, one from each programme, shared
their Malta experience with the audience.
In the coming academic year a further two programmes will be added to the International Masters
Programme. One will be in Environmental and Climate
Change Law and the other in Ocean Governance.
Give students a voice
Family and Social Solidarity Minister Marie-Louise
Coleiro Preca recently
visited Criminology students for an interactive
meeting on policy and
crime prevention, during which the students
presented some of their
key research findings and
policy recommendations
drawn on their final seminar papers.
At the meeting, the
students expressed their
concerns about undocumented migrants, burden
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sharing, and Malta’s overdue integration policy;
raised questions about
lone mothers, poverty,
welfare dependency and
benefit fraud, as well as
the future of prisoners
and their access to the
labour market after serving time; and proposed
that Government should
make it a priority to create
education programmes
for prisoners with a focus
on gender-specific needs,
and the transitioning of
offenders.