Malta's Education minister, Evarist Bartolo (pictured), and the Libyan minister for labour, Mohammed Swalem [Mohamed Fitouri Sualim], have signed an amendment to the 1976 agreement for the sale of the land which currently houses the Libyan school in Ta Giorni.
Malta Today reports that the Libyan government will invest a total of €22.4 million in an educational centre for up to 900 Libyan students at the site.
The Centre of Excellence will provide high quality training to students and offer undergraduate courses through a new campus.
The first phase of the institute’s internationalisation project includes a €1.4 million refurbishment of the current school that is already currently underway and that is expected to take about nine months, according to Tripoli Herald.
The Libyan government will be investing €21 million in the new campus and a further €1.4 million in equipment on the site which currently hosts a Libyan school. The improvements to the school in Malta's Ta' Giorni will be financed by the Libyan government while Malta will provide expertise and teaching staff.
The new campus will include 16 lecture rooms and two ICT labs with the latest hardware and software such as interactive whiteboards.
A Vocational Institute will also be created. This will include a number of workshops for mechanical engineeering, electrical engineering, electronics and welding.
Finance and accounting, international relations, ICT, diplomacy, management, language studies and media studies will also be among the courses available and the centre would be teaming up with Mcast and the Malta Chamber of Commerce.
Arabic lessons will also be offered to Maltese citizens and other international students.
The centre of excellence will be built on the site of the current Libyan school in Ta Giorni on 37,000 sq metres and will also provide accommodation to 250 students.
The agreement will be based on the collaboration between the Malta College of Arts, Sciences and Technology (MCAST) and the Libyan school. There are also plans to set up an MCAST campus in Misrata.
(Sources: Malta Today, Tripoli Post)
