Higher Education Commission is 'required immediately'

Education Minister Louis Galea said yesterday a National Commission For Higher Education will be proposed to act as regulator.

Speaking at the launch of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology's prospectus for the next scholastic year, Dr Galea said the expansion of the post secondary level of education meant the government could not continue to be both a provider and regulator in education.

The commission, he said, was required immediately and it had to ensure that people felt that the Lm30 million being spent on higher education each year was well spent.

He emphasised the importance of maintaining high quality standards in education pointing out that the certification MCAST provided would only be of value if it was recognised, both locally and abroad, as certificates of competence and knowledge.

It was for this reason that the ministry wanted to create such a regulatory framework which would assess the quality of courses at MCAST, the university and other educational institutions of higher learning. Dr Galea said the prospectus was the fifth being published by the institute. Students who completed their fifth form studies or others interested in the courses offered at MCAST should collect a copy of the prospectus or visit the MCAST website for a digital copy with further details on courses and how to apply. Applications will be received between July 25 and 29.

Since its inauguration in October 2000, the college has expanded to incorporate nine institutes and campuses all over Malta and Gozo offering 79 full-time courses in Malta and 13 in Gozo.

Last year the college hosted more than 3,600 full-time students and over 2,000 part-timers divided in two intakes and is currently accepting applications from students for the summer programme.

In the academic year 2004-5 the student intake exceeded 1,600 and over 1,100 students made the grade and graduated earlier this year.

Dr Galea said the college was not launching any new courses this year but was consolidating its existing ones and levels as it continues to invest heavily in its infrastructure.

MCAST principal Frank Edwards said that over the past four years the college had developed fast to be able to incorporate more institutes and offer a wider choice of courses and higher levels of education.

It did this while maintaining a high quality of educational provision. This was recently recognised by the UK's leading qualifications awarding body Edexcel when it gave MCAST the International Centre of Excellence Award.

Dr Galea said that an important part of ensuring the provision of quality education was the investment made in teacher training and professional development, the investment in the infrastructure and resources and strong links with industry.

With regard to teacher training the minister said that the first cohort of candidates enrolled in the vocational teacher training programme were half way through the course.

The Vocational Teacher Training Unit (VTTU) offered in-house training and was fully sponsored by the college.

Its mission statement was to "provide quality and state-of-the-art pedagogical training to staff in reflection of a constantly changing society enabling them to fully develop their own individual potential and talents within the context of the college and related industry".

To fulfil this mission in the initial stages, MCAST has chosen the Edexcel/BTEC vocational teacher framework as the vehicle to achieve a certificate in further education teaching of international recognition.

The qualification will have the joint badge of Edexcel and MCAST. This professional qualification in FE teaching is designed to provide focused and specialist vocational programmes with a clear work-related emphasis.

Dr Galea said that once the Foundation for Tomorrow's School provided an alternative site for the Junior Lyceum at Corradino, MCAST would take over this school in order to expand further.

He said a third pillar in ensuring quality education at this level was the forging of strong links with industry. Since its inception, MCAST worked hard to strengthen links with industry such as Lufthansa, Playmobil, Methode and the Malta Shipyards.

The college was also working very closely with the pharmaceutical industry.

MCAST had a partnership agreement with Malta Enterprise.

MCAST, Dr Galea said, had an important role to play because it had to facilitate foreign direct investment by ensuring an adequate labour supply of the appropriate skills, knowledge and flexibility required by industry.