The Institute of Tourism Studies has failed an EU quality assurance audit, the Times of Malta has learnt.
The audit, seen by this newspaper, was conducted by a panel of EU experts, who gave ITS failing grades in 10 of 11 sections. These ranged from the institute’s transparency to the design of its courses and information management, with some sections faring worse than others.
The audit was carried out in May last year and lays bare the state of the tourism school’s internal structures.
While some sections, such as the design of programmes, saw the institute score an all-out fail, other sections were more promising with the auditors saying the school needed further work to meet the acceptable standard.
The report says that, among other issues, the school did not have an adequate quality assurance policy and it was not generating enough funds. This, the report says, meant the school faced significant hurdles when making long-term plans.
The audit was conducted by a panel of EU experts, who gave ITS failing grades in 10 of 11 sections
On the other end of the spectrum, vacancies in the institute’s management set-up meant the school had under-spent its budgetary allocation in the recent past.
Not only were there problems when it came to designing new programmes – because of a lack of research on upcoming tourism trends - but the set-up of the school had also led to conflicts of interest when it came to internal reviews.
The report says that while courses were internally scrutinised, this review was carried out, in some instances, by the same people actually giving the lectures.
Also, a “considerable number” of the school’s programmes offered two or more versions of curricula at the same time.
“This causes tensions among the students as the updated curricula may be perceived as more advantageous when compared to the old one,” the report reads.
ITS objected, saying it had already started developing a quality assurance structure
Things at ITS, however, may not be as bad as the report suggests. According to the team of experts, the audit took place “under exceptional circumstances”. It said the school was in a phase of “reinvention” when the review was carried out and this had influenced the results.
“Practically all key academic and administrative leadership positions were vacant and the recruitment process was on-going,” the report reads.
It concludes by saying the team had received positive feedback from ITS after the audit and was confident the situation would improve.
On its part, ITS objected to some of the findings, saying it had already started developing an internal quality assurance structure at the time of the EU audit.
This, it said, should be integrated into the evaluation of its performance.
Nevertheless ITS acknowledged the “various shortcomings and weaknesses identified”. It said that the majority of issues had been brought about by “the severe lack of human resources over the past 10 years”.
The lack of resources, at management level and others, was highlighted in the institute’s own internal quality audit, ITS said.
It added that to rectify this, in 2015 several positions had been filled, including a new head of corporate services, a business development, public relations and marketing officer, a precincts officer, purchasing officers, finance manager and others.
ITS SAYS IT IS TAKING ACTION THAT WOULD LEAD TO QUALITY LEARNING
In a reply this afternoon, the Institute said that from the time the current administration took office it immediately identified serious gaps in the management structure of the Institute and embarked on a process to establish the current management structure and consolidate it further.
A strategic action plan was launched prior to the audit, which the auditor praised, and in fact it was mutually agreed that it should be followed. Consequently, the Institute also took steps to consolidate its programmes of study and beef up its human resource.
ITS said it deployed a number of actions which include the complete review of its full-time programmes, streamlined at the beginning of the current scholastic year for the benefit of both the students themselves and the industry, and approved through its recently appointed quality structures.
“The new curriculum was devised on the needed distribution of key competencies, sectoral skills and underpinning knowledge. This was the first time since ITS inception that a curriculum was devised according to such high quality assurance practices involving both internal and external stakeholders.”
The institute said it also formed an innovative scientific committee, comprising leading industry stakeholders, and aimed at further shaping the curriculum to meet the industry’s current and future needs.