Law student organisations; ELSA Malta and GħSL release statements following this arrangement.
After seeking direction from the Registrar, Dr. Mifsud, Dean of the Faculty of Laws, has informed law student organisations on Monday, that study unit coordinators will start uploading past papers for free through VLE. This arrangement was brought forward after some questions were raised by fourth-year law students, arguing that this material should be provided for free.
European Law Student Association (ELSA) released a statement on Monday declaring its position on this matter stating that they “strongly believe that students should not have to pay for past papers”.
Other Faculties within The University of Malta have been offering past papers to their students free of charge for a number of years, and we believe that law students are completely entitled to the same commodities and services.
ELSA Malta
On Monday through an Instagram account, ‘lawsofmalta’, reacted positively to this arrangement.
In their statement shared through Facebook, ELSA Malta explained that according to the communication received from the Faculty of Laws, past papers will be shared ‘starting from 2017, as long as the study unit coordinator agrees with such past papers being disseminated.’
In light of this decision, the organisation took matters into their own hands stating that ‘the problem has only been partially solved as it is still unclear whether past papers preceding 2017 can or cannot be sold’. ELSA invited students to send past examination papers dating back before 2017 through email, which will be compiled and then shared with students who will access them for free.
Għaqda Studenti Tal-Liġi (GħSL) the student organisation in question, who previously took care of selling past papers to students also released a statement on Tuesday, clarifying its position and explaining that; ‘the reason behind the purchase of past papers stemmed from a normative agreement which started as a collaboration between the Organization near its genesis and the Faculty.’
The organisation thanked ‘all those who have brought this issue to light, and who have pushed GħSL to collaborate with Faculty on a new agreement which is more suitable and reflective of students’ needs’.
It is for this reason that the Organization would like to announce that it has heard the students’ wishes, and hence strongly agrees that past papers prior to 2017, which will not be under the care of Faculty as recently agreed, are to be distributed for free.
GħSL
Both GħSL and ELSA are on par with the fact that past papers prior to 2017, are to be distributed for free by the Faculty of Laws.
This is an update to our prior article.