We refer to the article ‘Not blinded by doubtful liaisons’ (The Sunday Times of Malta, July 26). We have the utmost respect for Therese Comodini Cachia and George Pullicino and have had the opportunity on a number of occasions to discuss with Comodini Cachia the direction Mcast is taking and to answer any queries the Opposition spokespersons may have about Mcast.
Clearly, as a public institution we completely accept that Mcast should be open to political scrutiny and we have always been open to reply to any questions and queries which may from time to time be raised with regards to Mcast. However, we strongly feel that the long-standing political consensus with regard to Mcast should be retained for the benefit of the Maltese educational system.
It is therefore very disappointing to note that a positive development that should have been celebrated by all has now ended up at the centre of unfair criticism. The fact that Mcast can now offer Masters Level 7 degrees is an important milestone for vocational education in Malta and is a natural development of all the hard work that was carried out by all previous political administrations to nurture and develop Mcast to where it is today.
Mcast has been offering Level 6 undergraduate degrees for over five years now and had been granted self-accreditation status for its courses up to Level 6 in 2012. The present amendment to this same Legal Notice granting Mcast the right to accredit degrees up to Level 7 is the natural progression of this long process which further strengthens the provision of vocational education in Malta.
We have always said that we would not rush into offering Level 7 courses but would do so with diligence and seriousness and, if necessary, that we would partner with other institutions to do so. We are confident that we have staff members who are very capable of offering courses at this level.
We are also confident that our students have what it takes to follow courses at Masters level. In fact, a significant number of our undergraduate students already successfully continue to study at Masters level both at the University of Malta as well as at prestigious foreign universities.
The long-standing political consensus with regards to Mcast should be retained for the benefit of the Maltese educational system
We are also very confident that we have a very strong and thorough quality assurance system that we feel is setting the pace for quality assurance in the higher educational sector in our country. Like all other institutions that provide higher education courses, Mcast has very recently passed through an extensive external audit carried out by the National Commission for Further and Higher Education that examined in detail Mcast’s operations, particularly its quality assurance systems.
We look forward to the publication of this audit, which was also carried out by independent foreign experts. We are confident that the report will showcase the hard work carried out by Mcast throughout the past years that has led to the setting up of a strong and effective quality assurance system at the college.
For these reasons, we strongly believe that Mcast is ready and prepared to start offering courses at this level while strengthening its courses at the other levels too. In fact, we are proud of the wide-ranging remit at Mcast, which offers courses from MQF Level 1 to Level 6 and, in the near future, at Level 7.
The development of three colleges within Mcast – a Foundation College, a Technical College and a University College – will create a structure that will enable us to drive these different, but equally important, levels forward.
In this sense, the vision that inspired the setting up of Mcast in 2001 is being strengthened further by these developments.
We strongly appeal that a political consensus supporting these developments is retained and strengthened further. We will do what it takes to ensure this consensus is retained and we are confident that all stakeholders will join us in developing Mcast forward.
At the end of the day, improving Mcast means improving the educational provision for our country’s youths and, crucially in a time of economic change and turmoil, also means strengthening the educational infrastructure of our country.
Silvio De Bono is president of the Mcast board of governors and Stephen Cachia is principal and CEO.