Updated - Adds Ministry of Education reaction - The Malta Union of Teachers said that while it agreed, in principle, with letting foreign universities operate in Malta, it disagreed with some of the amendments proposed in a legal notice as they undermined longstanding beacons of education.
It said in a statement it was concerned the amendments would change the definition of a university to such an extent that accrediting entities would not be in a position to ensure that license holders would be operating a university according to established standards.
The way the legal notice was positioned gave a lot of weight to commercial and economic potential to the detriment of academic and educational standards.
The MUT said it was an international norm that an entity awarded the title of university should be multidisciplinary with different faculties, have taught programmes, have a continuous strong research element, and support an element of outreach in the host community.
The proposed amendments, however, meant that eligible entities in Malta would now be able to ignore three out of these criteria and were free to adopt just one of the elements.
In reality, this meant that Malta would potentially open its doors to commercial entities without any substantial educational function to operate as a university.
Another implication was that Malta would operate a definition of university which was different from the established norm in most countries, thereby putting the country’s academic reputation at risk. Moreover, the union doubted whether Malta had enough resources to monitor what went on inside all higher and further education institutions.
The MUT said it was all the more concerned that applications for university status would also be considered by the commission “if the application is in the national interest”.
“The union believes that this is completely unacceptable because it means that academic licences might be awarded on an ad hoc basis regardless of international academic standards.
“The Union would have expected a proper study to be conducted to make sure that the university of Malta, Mcast and ITS do not lose foreign students to private institutions, especially if these are primarily of a commercial nature.
“If this happens, local educational institutions with long traditions and good repute would end up with financial difficulties that could make it impossible for them to operate successfully,” it said.
GOVERNMENT REACTION
In a reaction, the Ministry of Education denied that educational standards are in anyway being lowered.
"The accreditation and licensing process run by the National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE) has remained largely unchanged. In fact in the last few months, the Government has regularised the high standards we have achieved so far and further strengthened them," it said.
"New regulations now ensure that educational institutions operating in the University sector in Malta and Gozo must have the required fully qualified academic staff and they must go through a rigorous quality assurance process of their programmes before they are allowed to operate. Their students and academics must undertake research. Applying in the national interest does not exonerate educational institutions from the obligations to offer good quality courses, research programmes and good academic governance."
The ministry said international trends showed that new universities were being established with specialised programmes in one or a few areas. The new legal notice thus defined universities in the context of these new global realities.
"The quality and standards of a university do not depend on the amount of programmes and faculties but in the way these programmes are run and delivered."
It said it was committed to enhancing Malta’s reputation as a top education destination in the same way that enhanced its credentials for the teaching of English as a Foreign Language sector.