Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1021976
17 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 2 SEPTEMBER 2018 TECHNOLOGY and DLT has put our country on the global blockchain map and therefore it is important that educational institutions provides the expertise that is required for this sector to flourish. Vella also said that accord- ing to the Government strate- gy, the University should con- tinue working to strengthen this important sector for the economy. While encouraging stu- dents to pursue their stud- ies at Masters and Doctorate level, Vella said that many students can benefit from this scheme, as long as their main study component is re- lated to Blockchain and DLT. Students from the faculties of ICT, Finance, Law and Man- agement can all benefit from this scheme which is open for students starting this aca- demic year. Applications have already opened and whoev- er is interested can send an email on dlt@um.edu.mt for more information. The Director of the Centre for Distributed Ledger Tech- nologies, Dr Joshua Ellul ex- pressed his satisfaction on representing the centre dur- ing such an important initia- tive. He explained that these technologies will revolution- ise the way services are pro- vided through a decentralised manner. However, Ellul also said that these technologies offer new academic and educational challenges within different sectors including ICT, Law, Finance and Commerce. Together with these challeng- es, Ellul also mentioned the amount of skilled workforce that will be required to sustain the large number of DLT com- panies who have shown their interest in investing in Malta and are willing to base their companies in our country. Ellul said that the University of Malta has been delivering FinTech lectures, including elements of blockchain, for the last four years. However, he explained that the Uni- versity of Malta intensified its commitment once Malta adopted the blockchain island strategy. For this reason, the Univer- sity of Malta has developed several study units within dif- ferent programmes and also opened the Centre for Dis- tributed Ledger Technologies that will start offering Mas- ters programmes in IT, Law and Commerce as from next year. The Minister of Education, Honourable Evarist Bartolo praised this initiative and said that such initiatives en- able our students to be at the forefront in developing their skills in important sectors and therefore help our coun- try to excel. In the next three years, students who would like to pursue their studies related to blockchain and DLT, at a Masters or Doctorate level, can benef it from these funds as long as they have 30 ECTS credits focusing on Blockchain and DLTs Parliamentary secretary Silvio Schembri