Jul 13 - Minister For Education Speaks At International Education Conference In Seychelles

The Minister for Education, Gilbert Licudi, has returned from Seychelles where he was invited to speak at an international conference on education in small states.

The conference, which was organised by the University of Seychelles, brought together international educators and researchers. It included delegates from universities in the United States, Hong Kong, South Africa, Mauritius, Sweden, Germany and the UK as well as Seychelles.

Minister Licudi’s presentation to the conference was entitled: Educational Challenges and Opportunities in Small States – The Case of Gibraltar. The presentation, which was extremely well received, dealt with issues arising from having an education system which is adopted from another country, meeting all human resources requirements in a small state and the need to provide broad-based access to higher education.

Part of Minister Licudi’s presentation focused on the newly established University of Gibraltar. This attracted a great deal of interest from all delegates. The underlying theme of Minister Licudi’s presentation was on investment in education as the way for a small state to progress in every field.

Minister Licudi, who was accompanied by Dr Darren Fa, the University of Gibraltar’s Director of Academic Programmes and Research, also took the opportunity to meet with officials from the University of Seychelles. This followed an MoU signed with the University of Seychelles last year. A working session on a joint masters programme between the Universities of Gibraltar and Seychelles turned out to be extremely productive.

Minister Licudi said: “There are many common themes with other small states in the challenges and opportunities in education which we each face. The conference allowed all delegates to learn from each other’s experiences. Our contacts with the University of Seychelles and those we have made at this conference are invaluable in the work we are doing on our University. They will allow us to continue to establish collaborations which are key to the success of any University.” 

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