On Thursday 16th February, the KSU held its 7th commission meeting of the year which was attended by 32 student organisations and representatives recognised by senate.
During these commission meetings, that usually happens once a month, various social and educational topics are discussed, with feedback being exchanged between organisations and representatives and KSU regarding various issues. For example, this meeting brought up issues faced by students during the examination period. While examination venues were announced before the examination period, the exact location or building of such venues were not announced, which lead to unnecessary confusion.
However, the main topic of discussion that arose during the meeting was the recent controversy about the implementation of the CASP system. Various student organisations brought up the issue that some courses already have similar courses which rendered CASP redundant, as well as flagging the issue that the implementation and the way it was marketed to students were not efficient to reach affected students, to the point where some organisations only heard about it from media outlets.
This was followed by a response that clarified that the CASP system was voted on and passed in the University of Malta Senate in March which was the term of the past senate representative. The actual marketing of the course started back in October and November with several faculties having obligatory meetings that discussed this in one way or another. However, it was noticed that these meetings had either only been made for international students or have been poorly attended.
Following this, a vote was called to vote on the CASP system in two regards: its merits and aims as presented on the UoM website, and regarding the actual process of disseminating the information about CASP to students and the implementation and integration within different faculties. The voting took place on the following statements:
Statement 1: Do you agree with the aims CASP seeks to foster among students i.e. helping students find their voice, think critically, and facilitate the development of effective communication through writing and presenting both general and discipline-specific conventions?
27 of presenting organisations and representatives voted for this statement while 5 abstained, with no vote taken against this statement.
Statement 2: Do you agree with the way CASP was introduced in terms of dissemination of information, integration, and implementation on a FCIS basis?
28 of presenting organisations voted against this statement while 4 abstained, while there were no votes for this statement.
From the abovementioned votes, it’s clear that the main issue student organisations and representatives faced was the way CASP was introduced and how poorly it was integrated into some faculties that had similar classes, as well as the ineffective notice that was given to students regarding these topics. Therefore, it can be concluded that student organisations are not against CASP’s main aims and goals, only its implementation and integration into their respective faculties.
