Malta

image/svg+xml Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) Map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) A blank map of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and countries fully surrounded by the EHEA. Every country has an id which is its ISO-3116-1-ALPHA2 code in lower case. Members of the EU have a class="eu", all EHEA countries have a class="europe", non-EHEA countries have a class="nonehea". Image based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blank_map_of_Europe_(with_disputed_regions).svg by Júlio "Tintazul" Reis and Marian "maix" Sigler. Made by Colin Tück, EQAR, 2017 Released under CreativeCommons Attribution ShareAlike (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.5/).
  • Governmental membership
    Malta has been a Governmental Member of EQAR since February 2008.

    Map: EHEA countries by governmental membership

  • General information on higher education

    Higher education in Malta is provided by:

    • Public tertiary education: University of Malta, the Malta Collage of Arts, Science and Technology, and the Institute of Tourism Studies Malta. 
    • Private higher education institutions 
  • National external quality assurance requirements

    Depending on the accreditation status, higher education institutions may be public self-accrediting institutions, licensed institutions or provisional licensed institutions who are working towards fulfilling all the requirements to obtain a regular licence.

    Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) is the responsible body for licensing, accreditation and quality assurance for further and higher education institutions in Malta.

    • Institutional audit
      All institutions, including self-accrediting ones, have to be reviewed and audited periodically by NCFHE as part of the External Quality Assurance process as defined by NCFHE.

    • Programme accreditation
      Education institutions (whether national, international, public or private) must have their programme audits approved by the National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE). Locally accredited courses currently do not have an accreditation expiry date. By exception, public institutions that have a 'self-accrediting status' established by NCFHE do not need to submit programmes for accreditation if these fall within the scope of the Malta Qualification Framework (MQF) level of their self-accrediting status. They would need to do so if they intend to provide programmes that exceed the MQF level of their self-accrediting status.

  • EHEA key commitment

    Partially aligned with the ESG

    A fully functioning quality assurance system is in operation nationwide but only some higher education institutions are subject to regular external quality assurance by an agency that has successfully demonstrated compliance with the ESG through registration on EQAR

    Map: implementation of the EHEA key commitment

  • Cross-border quality assurance

    Recognising foreign agencies based on their own framework/requirements

    Programme audits can be carried out directly by a panel experts appointed by NCFHE or by an EQAR-registered external agency.

    • Eligibility requirements for foreign agencies: Prior approval by the MFHEA is required for suitability, language proficiency, capacity and experience. The audit process and the terms of reference must be reviewed and approved by MFHEA before the audit process begins.

    • Conditions for the agencies’ work (e.g. criteria to be used): The external quality assurance agency has to follow the accreditation criteria set out in the national legislation governing further and higher education and, therefore, also all relevant regulations and communications issued by MFHEA.

    • Recognition of reviews carried out by foreign agencies: The final decision is taken by the MFHEA on the result of the accreditation procedure.

    Map: recognition of cross-border quality assurance

  • European Approach for Quality Assurance of Joint Programmes

    European Approach available to all higher education institutions

    According to confirmation by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Employment, in case of joint programmes higher education institutions may opt for a programme audit by a suitable EQAR-registered agency, using the agreed standards of the European Approach.

    Map: availability of the European Approach for QA of Joint Programmes

  • Permalink
    https://data.deqar.eu/country/108
  • Further information

Registered agencies operating in Malta