Thursday, May 8, 2008, 00:00 , by Ernest Cachia
The Faculty of ICT: An educator and incubator
It will soon be a year since the creation of the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta, bringing our university in line with
other universities in the world in recognising and addressing the national development needs of modern technological
solutions. As the dean of this new faculty, I feel that a few words are in order to complement its very short history and (still)
hectic activity.
The area of ICT is a relative newcomer to the club of the more traditional scientific disciplines, such as the pure sciences and
engineering. This area of academic endeavour is a direct result of the confluence of a number of modern technologies and
techniques relating to such intertwined areas as computing (both the science and engineering of), information and business
systems, artificial intelligence, integrated circuit (IC) design, and communication systems. This confluence is mainly the
result of the ever-increasing quality requirements being placed in general on ICT solutions for local and global industrial
needs.
The Faculty of ICT (FICT) sees its role in today's socio-economic landscape as multifaceted. In particular, I personally tend
to broadly identify the faculty's roles as those of educator, incubator, innovator and integrator. The order in which these roles
are listed is purely alphabetical and bears no relation to any importance attachment or prioritisation of these roles. I would
like to dedicate the first part of this article to the role of the Faculty as educator and incubator, while I will use the second
part to expand on its role as innovator and integrator.
Educator: Naturally, this is currently one of the main responsibilities of the FICT. The faculty is directly involved with the
creation and management of new and existing degree programmes.
The responsibility of the faculty in this regard is not a simple one. We need to maintain a well-defined balance between
study programme relevance and content quality according to our own internal, as well as international, standards.
To help maintain this balance, the faculty currently employs a number of approaches. These approaches include: (i) The
annual visit of external examiners with distinguished international reputation from top UK universities to scrutinise and
report on the ongoing academic quality of individual study programmes; (ii) The regular revision of existing study
programmes in the light of national, professional, and technological realities, academic requirements and standards, and
relevance to global and local industry; (iii) The readiness and willingness of the faculty to meet with industry, and/or their
representative bodies, to keep an ear attuned to the needs of local employers; (iv) The encouragement of staff members to
pursue doctoral studies in foreign universities helping to introduce new areas of study as well as bringing back different
technological perspectives to enhance the exiting bouquet of expertise within the faculty; (v) The gradual increase of staff
within the faculty's various departments enabling them to offer study programmes with even better coverage of all
mainstream ICT areas; last but not least, the full compliance of FICT study programmes to the newly set up University-wide
enhanced quality control infrastructure.
Incubator: The faculty also sees itself as an environment where new ideas and approaches can be exposed and matured, even
up to practical adoption level.
In this aspect, the faculty is significantly involved in numerous specifically European, and/or international, projects, local
consortia and initiatives, including internal university-funded research initiatives.
The faculty also boasts a healthy and thriving post-graduate community at both Master of Science and Doctorate levels.
Various seminars and talks, as well as conferences in collaboration with other institutions, have been and are being organised
by the faculty.
• Dr Cachia is the dean of the Faculty of ICT at the University of Malta