[WATCH] Minister denies reduction in University standards

Evarist Bartolo denies Legal Notice will hit University standards

Education minister Evarist Bartolo has insisted that Malta's tertiary educational standards will not take a hit as a result of a legal notice that has lowered the criteria required by educational institutes to get recognized as universities.

The controversial legal notice, published in May, allows the National Commission for Further Higher Education to invoke "national interest" as an additinal criterion through which it can green-light an educational institution as a university.

Addressing a press conference, Bartolo said that the clause has been introduced to place the Education Act in line with the government's policy to "internationalise education as an export sector".

"This in no way means that the government can just decide to grant any educational institution of their choice with the status of a university," he said. "The due diligence screening and internal quality assurance of their programmes will remain as rigorous as ever. No institution will buy university accreditation.”

He also insisted that the NCFHE will remain autonomous from government and that the government won’t interfere into its accreditation process.  

The new amendments also reduce the number of minimum fields, from six to four, in which programmes leading to higher diplomas, Bachelors’ and Masters’ degrees are offered. They also remove the requirement for universities to have at least four fields in which doctorate programmes are offered.

Bartolo argued that this law change will not lower the quality screening of the actual programmes, which will remain as rigorous as ever.  

Indeed, he said that the legal notice has allowed for the recognition and screening of tuition centres.

The law was tweaked three days after the government signed a Heads of Agreement with Jordanian construction firm Sadeen Group through for the latter to construct the private 'American University of Malta'. The legal notice will make it unproblematic for the NCFHE to green-light Sadeen's aspirations, and several University lecturers have already voiced their concern that it could damage the UOM's reputation.

However, Bartolo denied that the legal notice was introduced to satisfy Sadeen.

“A lot of the controversy surrounding the legal notice is due to a lack of awareness about it,” he said. “Of course, lecturers will feel afraid if they hear rumours that educational standards will be lowered or that any institutions will be able to get recognized as universities.”

The Opposition today presented a parliamentary motion, calling on the government to revoke the legal notice. Opposition leader Simon Busuttil described the legal notice as an “attack” on the University of Malta’s reputation and warned that it could reduce the validity of UOM graduation certificates.