Time to step up to the plate
Posted on | June 10, 2010 | No Comments
The recent revelations that the World Maritime University is in financial trouble should surprise nobody.
With two of its biggest donors, Norway and France withdrawing (hopefully temporarily) and the world in a financial crisis, it is naive to suggest that this institution should in some way to be isolated from the real world.
It has, of course, been here before, and at no time during its history can it be said that the WMU has been financially secure.
It has always been vulnerable, not least because of its size, and the perpetual uncertainty of its financial backing. The wonder is that it has been able to do so much, and so effectively, with so little. There are now some 2800 graduates out there in the wider world, and the maritime world is a better place because of them and what they learned during their stints in Malmo.
Certain folk with forked tongues have never been entirely convinced of the rationale developed by its founders, suggesting that what WMU could be done perfectly successfully in the technical institutions or post-graduate courses available in their own countries. Perhaps there is some validity in their claims, but it is difficult to conceive how the mechanism for assisting students from those very nations that the WMU is designed to empower could be replicated in a meaningful fashion.
The Achilles heel of the WMU, from the moment it was approved by the IMO has been its funding. Not for the first time was a really splendid initiative by the international community handicapped by the fact that while there was tremendous “moral” support for the institution, when the plate was passed around, the hands of most of the distinguished delegates stayed in their pockets.
And with a few exceptions, they have remained there and too much effort of the WMU management, which arguably could have been better spent in academic pursuits, has been occupied with fund raising. The industry, once again with a few exceptions, has exhibited its traditional role of clapping its hands to avoid writing the cheques.
The WMU is an excellent institution, and to visit it is to be genuinely inspired by its international ethos, high academic standards and the quality of the people who attend. It delivers a great deal with a very small budget, which if spread more widely across those nations which have a vested interest in its success (and that means all of us), would be no big deal. There is surely an opportunity to do something about this lamentable situation, which might stop these periodic crises and fund it properly with a levy on all IMO members. Why is that so hard?
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