Malta’s higher education regulator has been denied entry to a European register of educational institutions after failing its latest assessment, causing turmoil among Maltese private higher education institutions.
The decision means that students sitting for bachelor, master’s or doctoral degrees at these institutions are finding that their qualifications are often not recognised abroad.
Malta’s higher education sector is regulated by the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA), which is tasked with safeguarding high standards across all local higher education institutions.
MFHEA itself is assessed by European bodies, such as the European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR), to ensure it aligns with European educational standards, known as ESGs.
Listing on EQAR’s register is widely used by national accreditation bodies, universities and employers across Europe as a measure of the country’s academic credibility. Sources say that not appearing on EQAR’s register often results in degrees going unrecognised abroad, with foreign students reluctant to enrol in courses offered locally.
MFHEA’s application to join the EQAR register was turned down after an assessment carried out last year identified several administrative shortcomings.
EQAR’s assessment found MFHEA compliant in only six of the 13 required standards, falling short in the remaining seven.
EQAR also raised concerns about the independence of the MFHEA board, noting that its members are nominated by the Education Minister and appointed by the Prime Minister.
Despite MFHEA arguing that appointments are subject to parliamentary scrutiny, EQAR said it “maintains its concerns raised above about how the organisational independence of the agency is constrained by its strong link and dependency on the government”.
The report also highlighted several other shortcomings, from the problems with MFHEA’s strategic plan (it “lacks a detailed outline of clear and explicit goals” according to the report), to the absence of published reports on MFHEA’s accreditation procedures at the time of the assessment.
Ultimately, the report concluded that MFHEA “fails to meet some key requirements of the ESG,” with EQAR saying it is “unable to conclude that MFHEA complies substantially with the ESG as a whole”.
EQAR informed MFHEA of the outcome of its assessment last year, deferring MFHEA’s application in July to allow time for additional submissions.
In its submissions, MFHEA objected to what it described as “the inconsistent approach and the criteria used” at times in the assessment, pointing out that EQAR’s external assessor, the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA), had marked MFHEA compliant in certain criteria, only for EQAR to later downgrade the score to partially compliant.
“Is it to be understood that the criteria for outcomes change depending on the standard being reviewed? Or that the EQAR criteria are different to those adopted by ENQA?” MFHEA asked in its reply.
However, this failed to change matters, with EQAR confirming its decision to exclude MFHEA from its register last September.
As a result, EQAR lists Malta as one of just seven countries that are “partially aligned” with Europeans standards and guidelines for higher education, alongside Iceland, Moldova and the Holy See, among others.
A further eight countries are considered “not aligned” at all, with the remaining 35 “fully aligned”.
The decision means that degrees conferred by private academic institutions regulated by MFHEA are frequently not recognised by accreditation bodies around Europe, many of which rely on EQAR registration as a prerequisite.
However, EQAR’s decision does not affect Malta’s state-run higher education institutions, namely the University of Malta, MCAST and ITS, all of which continue to be recognised overseas.
But the decision is nonetheless likely to hit hundreds of students, many of whom have paid thousands of euros in tuition fees to pursue their degree.
According to MFHEA’s online database, there are currently two licensed universities, aside from the University of Malta, together with almost 70 higher education institutions in Malta.