Sunday, February 4, 2007, by Paul Micallef
Board of Studies for IT - ten years on
This year marks a milestone in information and communication technology (ICT) at the University of Malta. This
year's graduates in IT were the tenth group going out into the workforce.
The Board of Studies for IT (BOSIT) was set up as a collaboration between three departments of the University,
two from the Faculty of Science and one from the Faculty of Engineering, outside existing faculty structures,
following an initiative involving the current Rector, Professor Juanito Camilleri, Professor Albert Leone Ganado
and Professor Paul Micallef.
The aim was to provide industry with the software and information professionals that were essential and which
were not being provided from within the existing faculty structures.
These graduates are present both in the manufacturing and in the service industries, especially in the areas of
communications and financial services. They are also the backbone of the growing software industry.
The graduates have shown an excellent measure of entrepreneurship, with many successful start-up companies
that are growing in number and which cover various areas, from embedded systems to software development.
The board has an excellent rapport with local industry. The final year includes a module that includes lectures by
a number of professionals from the industry. The board has started a Masters in IT conversion aimed at
graduates in any field, who wish to move into the ICT area.
Over the past two years the board has developed, with its counterpart department at MCAST, collaboration
aimed at giving students from MCAST, who are capable of continuing their studies at University, the possibility of
moving to the University through a vocational path, without going through the standard path of the MATSEC
certificate.
The feedback from industry is that there is a need for a large number of professional graduates in IT, a number
considerably more than that being produced by the BOSIT at present.
Over the past few years the importance of communications and information engineering as part of IT has
increased. The EU sustains the vision of ICT as a coherent entity to provide the professionals as well as the
necessary synergy between engineering and computing sciences to drive forward research in this area.
Both Government and Opposition in their development plans have earmarked ICT as one of the pillars on which
to plan for the future. However, within the present University structures, the board has no representation on
Senate and has had to fight for its survival.
One hopes that the long saga within the University on how to treat ICT is concluded as soon as possible. Within
the holistic picture of science, engineering and technology, ICT must take its position as an equal and no longer
as an appendix to the existing structures.