Blurring the lines

Abstract

The historical concept of higher education in Malta is being obscured by new crude mental attitudes of people without a sense of tradition and history who are disregarding the very raison d'etre of every university, which is, research and teaching. The emphasis on technological education is not without its justification, especially in a rapidly changing society that is seeking its economic survival in industrialisation. We not only feel the need for this new orientation, we heartily support it because, after all, we cannot afford to live in an ivory tower. As we ourselves have enjoyed the benefit of a liberal education, which we would like others to enjoy for their own good, we have been so mentally conditioned by this educational background that, luckily, we can appreciate the need for a two-pronged type of education, differently graded and differently inspired within the framework of a broad national education. We still believe in a liberal education because it is this type of education that liberalises the human mind, opens up new horizons and provides wider terms of reference for comparative thinking and evaluations which is so essential for mature value judgements.