Graduation Ceremony 2
Graduand’s Address
Tuesday 20 November 2012 at 1630hrs
JESUITS’ CHURCH – VALLETTA
Mark Micallef
Ph.D. graduand and representative of the students
It is an honour for me to be asked to deliver a speech on the occasion of this graduation.
Every graduate here today has strived and worked hard to achieve a high level of
education which I am convinced will be of immense value to our country.
This is indeed an interesting time to be involved in both higher education and research
activities, regardless of the specific field. The world economy is now subject to so-called
disruptive innovations. These are new products, services and ideas which revolutionise
the market and change it forever. Only a few years ago for example, international
communication cost a small fortune. Today with the internet and related technologies,
one can communicate internationally on high quality video links for close to zero cost.
This has not only improved communication in personal relationships but also
revolutionised the way we do business, amplifying international commerce and
collaboration. Similarly, if one were to pose the question as to where the future of ICT
was heading back in 2007, very few people who have predicted the way that smart phone
technology would revolutionise the ICT industry. The smart phone has single handedly
led to new models for creating and selling software, new channels of communication
between businesses and customers and an ever-more pervasive technology base.
However, such innovations can be a threat to companies which are slow to adapt. I am
reminded of Nokia, a Scandinavian firm which only a few years ago was the main player
in global mobile telephony. Since the introduction of smart phone technology however,
the company has seen its market share drop drastically, causing it to shed thousands of
jobs. Its CEO recently admitted that the company was too slow to react to the changing
market. This and countless other examples highlight the need for companies, regardless
of their size, to be flexible, adaptable and continuously work to stay ahead of the
competition. For this to happen, a new type of workforce is required. In fact, the western
world is now well on its way towards a transition to what is known as a knowledge
economy. That is to say, an economy in which the most valuable assets to companies are
not their buildings, their machines or even their bank accounts. On the contrary, the most
valuable asset is the knowledge held by employees who are tasked with making the
company a success. These employees are known as knowledge workers: people whose
primary role it is to create, communicate and apply knowledge to solve problems for their
employers. Examples include employees in financial services, ICT, law, engineering,
and so on. Knowledge workers tend to earn higher pay and also achieve a greater sense of
satisfaction. Innovation is the order of the day and the University of Malta has a key role
to play in this new economy.
In the case of ICT for example, I am thrilled to see initiatives such as the eSkills Alliance,
a joint effort by industry and academia aimed at improving collaboration between the
two. We have already seen initiatives whereby the industry was given a stronger say in
the types of graduates produced by the University. This led to a set of new ICT courses
designed to produce graduates primed for the industry’s needs. Whilst this is a positive
development, the University should not be seen as merely a factory that produces
graduates for current roles in the industry. In fact, the concept of a one-career-for-life is
slowly starting to dissipate. It is not unlikely that a graduate who started out in one field
may end up working in a completely different one, or at the very least find herself
needing to apply her primary knowledge to a new field altogether. Hence, one must
resist the temptation to simply produce graduates who are armed only with knowledge for
today’s industrial context. It is more important to instill transferable skills, which can be
applied to new scenarios that are guaranteed to transpire throughout one’s career. In this
context, the most valuable graduate is not necessarily the one who is familiar the latest
technologies but one who is able to analyse a problem, carry out relevant research,
objectively weigh the pros and cons of potential solutions and convincingly argue for the
best one to be implemented. Arm a graduate with analytical skills and concepts
reinforced with enough field-specific matter to enable them to function in a specific field,
and that graduate will have the flexibility to adapt to whatever career she pursues in
future.
Having spent most of my professional life working in the industry, only recently
returning to full time academic work, the subject of industrial collaboration on research is
dear to me. Far from simply being a factory producing students, the University of Malta
is geared up to be a factory of ideas. I believe that more can be done to leverage this
aspect of the University’s work in the industry. I am reminded of a quote by Henry Ford,
inventor of the automobile who once said:
“If I had asked the people what they want, they would have asked for a faster horse”
I think that in the context of today’s innovation-focused economy, the message behind
that statement has never rung truer. The University of Malta is not only there to support
the industry for what it needs today but also to challenge the status quo and develop new
ways of doing things. This should be done in the spirit of enabling long-term
sustainability, continuously improving competitiveness and contributing to the evolution
of the industry in an era where change is the only constant. It is only through ongoing
improvements and experimentation with new ideas that an economy can evolve
gracefully instead of aging and withering away. One poses the question as to what can be
done in this regard. I see three stakeholders in this scenario: (1) the industry, (2) the
University of Malta, and (3) the individual academic. At an organisational level, Industry
stakeholders and the University of Malta should strive to form stronger bonds for
collaboration. This can come in the form of enabling more frequent discussion about
problems which the industry is facing as well as providing researchers with the
opportunity to try new ideas in industry settings. This is not only valuable to researchers,
but also to the industry players themselves.
With regards to individual academics, I believe it is important to regularly touch base
with the industry, experience their problems first hand and then relate research, no matter
how seemingly esoteric, to particular problems which it might contribute to solving. That
is not to say that one should only seek short-term solutions or quick wins. Experience
shows that ideas which seemed implausible a few decades ago, eventually influenced the
industry in a revolutionary manner. Some of the techniques which are currently
influencing ICT research were developed in the 1970s but only now have become
feasible for use. Despite this, if one is to attract interest and collaboration from the
industry, a pragmatic compromise between long term and short term research goals needs
to be achieved.
Finally, I believe the University should actively work to break down barriers between
different fields of research so that researchers in different fields can freely collaborate
and learn from each other. Rather than locking ourselves away in silos, today, the most
successful innovations tend to be those which combine ideas from multiple disciplines to
produce solutions for modern day problems. In my work in ICT, I have witnessed
interesting lessons being learned and adapted from fields as diverse as economics,
knowledge management, pedagogy, psychology and biology. In the case of biology for
example, the study of how the human body fights an unknown disease has led to
interesting work in the development of ICT systems which fight off malicious attacks in a
similar manner. If the University manages to break down boundaries between
departments, faculties and fields, encouraging cross-fertilisation of ideas, exciting
innovations are sure to follow.
I would like to conclude by congratulating my fellow graduates on their achievements.
You have a lot to be proud of and I wish you every success in whatever path you choose
to pursue. I would also like to take this opportunity to on behalf of all graduates,
collectively thank our friends and families for picking up the slack and supporting us
during this journey, our colleagues for being a sounding board for problems and ideas,
and finally the University of Malta for the opportunities of further study, an increasingly
motivating environment, and the support provided by its dedicated staff. Finally, on a
personal note, I would like to thank my wife Christine for her never-ending patience and
support, and my parents and sisters for their infinite words of encouragement. Without
you, this would never have been possible.
Thank you.