You might soon be able to drive straight to Italy with your car from Sicily

Oct 27 2022

Matteo Salvini has revived an ancient (and controversial) dream of building a massive multi-billion euro bridge to link Sicily to the Italian mainland mere days after being made infrastructure minister.

This plan could see travellers being able to drive from Sicily straight to Italy and beyond. For us Maltese, that would be just one Catamaran trip and then it’s all road-trip from there.

Salvini, who is the leader of the League, a junior partner in a far-right coalition, told state broadcaster Rai that he put in motion this long-discussed plan of linking Messina to Reggio Calabria.

The project had been repeatedly rejected by previous governments due to high costs, engineering impracticality and environmental impact. Salvini said that the creation of the bridge would create over 100,000 new jobs.

He also claimed that transshipment of ferries, as well as pollution and waste of time, costs people more in a year than it would cost to build the bridge.

The area of Messina however is the site of a massive fault on the seabed, which had caused a massive earthquake that killed 120,000 people in 1908. This was the greatest seismic disaster of the 20th century.

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There were 58,047 enrolled students in Malta for 2020/21

Oct 27 2022

There were a total of 58,047 enrolled students across pre-primary, primary and secondary schools in Malta for the 2020/21 academic year. This is an overall 0.4% decease over the previous academic year.

Just over half of the students enrolled across the three school levels were male, at 52%. During the same academic year, 46.2% of the students were aged between 5 and 10, followed by the 11-15 age bracket at 37.2%.

58.8% of students attended state-run institutions, whereas church schools and independent schools accounted for 27.6% and 13.6% of enrolments respectively.

Total students enrolled in mandatory education during 2020/21 stood at 48,731. 55.3% of these attended primary school, with the remaining 44.7% attending secondary school.

In comparison to academic year 2019/2020, students decreased by 0.3% in primary and increased by 1.7% in secondary. The average class size for all schools at primary level was 17.7 students per class. For secondary level it was 18.7 students per class. Class size was lowest in state schools, with church schools having the highest average class size. Year 5 levels had an average class size of 24.

Students with a foreign nationality accounted for 13.9% of students during 2020/21 enrolled from pre-primary to secondary. Foreign students at these levels increased by 2.8% over academic year 2019/20. The majority of foreign students (59.7%) were Non-EU nationals.

The most popular foreign language studied at secondary level was Italian, followed by French, Spanish and German.

Full report by National Statistics Office (NSO) here.

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Tributes pour in for late University graduate Miguel Borg

Oct 27 2022

Tributes poured in for Miguel Borg, a University of Malta Mechanical Engineering graduate who completed his course despite suffering from a terminal illness.

The news was announced via the official University of Malta page, sharing the touching memory of Rector Prof. Alfred J. Vella visiting Miguel at his home to hold a private graduation ceremony.

‘Our deepest condolences go to the family and friends of Miguel Borg, who has sadly passed away earlier this morning following a terminal medical condition affecting his health’ the post read.

Borg found out about his illness during the course, as he worked to improve compressed air systems and better competitiveness in manufacturing during his thesis.

Borg was also one of the students who represented UOM in the Formula SAE competition at Silverstone in 2019. Described as a determined and courageous students by other classmates, the news of his passing saw many issuing touching tributes to the late graduate.

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PwC join forces with MCAST to make students industry ready

Oct 27 2022

The Malta College for Arts, Science, and Technology (MCAST) and PwC Malta (PwC) have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU), which will further strengthen the spirit of collaboration between the two organisations.

Through this new agreement, both parties will collaborate to design and review study programmes offered by the College.

This partnership also aims to ensure the offering of more industry-relevant study programmes offered at MCAST. MCAST Principal and CEO Professor Joachim James Calleja explained, “At MCAST, our strong collaborations with industry partners and understanding of future needs means our diverse courses are created with students’ careers in mind.

We look forward to this collaboration with PwC as we continue our pro-active approach to build strong connections with the business world where teaching and learning activities have a professional and entrepreneurial focus.”

On its part, PwC has agreed to further increase its apprenticeships and internship opportunities to MCAST students. Additionally, a structured student summer programme to widen the hands-on approach experience of MCAST students will be launched.

The College students will be able to gain industry experience with PwC. Moreover, industry experts from PwC will also be delivering thematic lectures to MCAST students in diverse areas of expertise as may be requested by the College.

David Valenzia, PwC’s Territory Senior Partner stated, “PwC believes that it is the responsibility of industry to invest in the student population as the future of our society lies with its youths.

We will continue to support students to the best of our ability, and, with MCAST, we are excited and look forward to working with both the educators and students, who are the workforce and leaders of tomorrow”. MCAST has also agreed to design, furnish and equip a dedicated PwC space on campus. MCAST student organisations are also set to receive support from PwC.

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