I thought that was an insignificant appointment at the time. Now I realize it was strategic, because they already knew about this ‘university’ land grab and needed a Taghna Lkoll stooge to head the accreditation commission.

And that’s exactly why, too, it was Mario Vella who rubber-stamped Sai Liang’s contract as a favour to Muscat, when no minister would do so – not even the Minister for the Economy, to whom Mario Vella is supposed to be accountable, but clearly is not because he has the prime minister’s protection.

The inner circle Labour source says it’s Vella.

If you analyse his thesis, you’ll see that it owes a lot to the style of Mario Vella.

Dominic Fenech and Lino Briguglio don’t strike me at all as the sort who would do something like that, and not just because it’s Muscat, either.

They were indeed close. Mario Vella was Muscat’s mentor for a while. I worked in the same office as Vella for around a year, and Muscat visited him there regularly. This would have been around the year 2000.

I don’t think it was Mario Vella who wrote Joseph Muscat’s thesis.

They don’t seem to be that close.

It could have been any number of Lejber/Taghna Lkoll intelletwali – Dominic Fenech, or Richard Matrenza, or Lino Briguglio, or even higher up in academia – pro-rectors and such.

That’s what happens when you’re “busy” researching a doctoral thesis in Burmarrad, Brussels or…. Mosta.

That’s not what Joseph Muscat says. He thinks studyents [sic] from Marsascala would rather go to a university in the “South” because Tal-Qroqq is too far away.

Because they don’t have the grades to get into a real and proper university, like the one at Tal-Qroqq.

Not that it’s difficult to get into that one, but you do need A-levels.

Question is, why would Maltese students want to go there?

Fucking bastards. Accrediting Palestianian bazuzli when they don’t even recognise universities outside the UK and Italy.