Two young interns at Global College Malta have convinced their rector, Professor Brian Smart, that Malta is the right place to test a very new and innovative scholarship programme that focuses on a Women in Business Gender Equality Scholarship which covers up to 50% of tuition fees on management courses at Global College Malta.

The two bright interns, Lilly Azbaha and Claudia Goncalves, from Rotterdam University put forward to Global College Malta's management team that there should be significant opportunities for women to pursue higher education, but that due to family structure and financial priorities often these opportunities are virtually non-existent for some women, leaving many capable and talented students unable to achieve their academic or professional goals.

Global College Malta is committed to provide eligible gender equality scholarship candidates, both female and male, with an opportunity to pursue their higher education at Malta's newest tertiary educational facility located at SmartCity Malta. The courses currently covered by Global College Malta's new scholarship are the flagship MBA, BA in Management and the Foundation Course in Management with English.

Ms Azbaha says that management subjects are well-suited to women's talents and leaves them better prepared to face challenges in the future: "When I came to Malta and started to do my internship at Global College Malta I noticed that a lot of applications came from male students and a few from female students. I decided to combine two problems: the glass ceiling and a lower number of female applications. The management team here has been very responsive and supportive of our ideas. I am delighted to have helped design this new scholarship to stimulate women to study at Global College Malta and to continue aiming for a high leadership position. The new scholarship will be one way to get there."

Fellow intern Ms Goncalves says she is very happy to be able to reach out to her peers through helping with the new gender equality scholarship: "Women can be smart as well, women can be creative, and women can speak with a mind of their own. But, they have to get the chance to show it. That's where this new scholarship programme kicks in, and someone who wants to be a role model encouraging gender equality in management positions and leadership roles will truly have access to the latest teaching resources and facilities here at the college in Malta. This is very exciting for us. I hope others will help us by taking this message viral, spread it through their networks and post it on facebook and twitter feeds, that way it will reach the right people."

Located at SmartCity, Global College Malta offers a sophisticated state-of-the-art learning environment and gives students the opportunity to study alongside and share cross-cultural insights with people from diverse countries. In this environment students will be trained to become leaders and managers in a variety of business and IT sectors, for both global and local markets. Global College Malta is the first European College offering university degrees according to British standards at SmartCity.

Global College Malta is collaborating with and representing highly respected international universities to act as an important education hub. Through Global College Malta’s services, cutting-edge institutions such as Wharfdale Technologies have started teaching and adding to the knowledge-base on the Islands, which is set to become one of the top destinations for students due to its strategic position and its high level of proficiency in English language, becoming a high-value-added education hub at the centre of the Mediterranean with Global College focused on British style education in key sectors such as Oil & Gas, Management and IT (Cloud Computing).

Professor Smart said that the new scholarship initiative was very much in line with the development policy at the college: "We believe that education shapes and changes lives and business for the better, and makes a tremendous contribution to society's bottom-line, with the role of managers and leaders key to this enhanced performance. Ensuring women can continue their education is a Global College Malta priority and it is our privilege to provide hope, resources and access to post-secondary education with innovative forms of scholarship. Without access to education there are limited options available to youth for a meaningful life."

For more information and to check eligibility visit www.gcmalta.com, while Global College Malta’s offices can be contacted by email at [email protected] or by phone on 2180 1252.