A new college has opened its doors at SmartCity, ready for its first intake of students in September this year. Global College aims to have 3,000 students by 2018.

Global College rector Brian Smart marked the inauguration by presenting Education Minister Evarist Bartolo with €38,000 worth of scholarships exclusively for Maltese nationals.

Global College will focus on key sectors such as oil and gas, IT (cloud computing) and management.

Malta caught the interest of Prof. Smart and his British management team, Ray Donnelly and Howard Kahn, because of its English-language credentials, stable economy, EU position, safe environment, open culture towards foreigners, warm hospitality, proximity to Mena and the European mainland, combined with excellent airline connectivity.

“There’s a growing demand for higher education, and the Maltese Government’s commitment to post-graduate tertiary education influenced our decision to invest here in Malta. We expect about 20 per cent of our students will be locals and their parents will be saving a lot of money by not having to send their children overseas to get access to best-of-breed post-graduate education in our specialist areas,” Prof. Smart said at the launch.

“Our projections show that Malta could attract up to 20,000 international students over the next five to seven years which will help to drive growth across all local institutions.”

The 20 per cent top-tier students in the college’s cloud computing MSc are guaranteed jobs with or through its partners on this course, Wharfdale Inc, and one of the scholarships is for a Maltese citizen to join that particular course, he said.