Middlesex University Pro Vice-Chancellor and Director of Academic Partnerships Myra Perry said that a very high number of high-end first-class students come out of Malta.
"The success of students and their experience that is important to us. Employability of students stands at around 95% for students in Malta," she said. The average age of students in the Maltese campus is 21.
Middlesex University will celebrate its second anniversary of the opening of its campus in Malta in July. She told The Malta Independent that "there are a very high number of first class students who come from Malta and a very high number of students are employed as a result of their studies with us".
Lesley Marks, Myra Perry's colleague, stated that "Maltese students here do not only excel academically but also in employment prospects, showing that our decision to invest in Malta was the right decision. We have every confidence that the relationship between Malta and Middlesex will develop and grow on the basis of academic achievement. This is really about showcasing our students. They are the testimony for our success in Malta".
The campus is mainly comprised of Maltese students. "The international section always comes at the second stage and we have already began recruiting international students. We want to be an international hub".
Myra Perry explained that Middlesex chose to create the Maltese campus after having a very good experience with Maltese students. She explained that prior to the campus, a franchise was created in Malta.
A campus is very different from a franchise. "A campus is all about Middlesex providing the student experience across the board, not just the academic programme; it's a very different model. The Maltese licensing authorities recognise the difference between having a centre and a campus". The Franchise School is STC Training. "All of our assessments are written and prepared in London and we expect the academic staff here to contribute to the development of the subject however quality control is all handled in one place and then supervised on site".
The University chose to specialise in IT and Technology in Malta "as our research shows that this is the area most needed on the island and we also plan to introduce a portfolio of postgraduate programmes that will be rolled out over the next five years".
The Maltese campus plans to extend into other sectors, however Mrs Perry says - "we must be absolutely sure it works with our strategy, which is to make our students employable and help develop subject areas. We don't want to be in competition with local provisions as we want to compliment what's there. We want to do some collaborative work with the University of Malta, which will hopefully happen someday. What we don't want to do is provide something that is already here. There is no need for that. We want to enhance what is here".
We want to work closely with Malta
"We don't want to build a wall around our campus and want to work closely with Malta. We know a lot regarding what is already provided here and what is needed. Our range of postgraduate programmes are different from what is already here".
Project VALCRI (Visual Analytics for sense-making in Criminal Intelligence) is currently being worked on at the University and is the largest project in general, that the University has had. It is a €13 million European Commission funded project that will act as a go between for all police databases, automatically making links in order to help analysts gather data. This will be done through the help of an advanced AI, capable of determining links between a crime committed and those similar to help minimise time and even draw lines between similarities in other crimes which could then lead to an arrest. The project team held a meeting in Malta last Summer to and worked from the Middlesex campus. Ms Perry explained that an even largest project is expected to be worked on by the University, however she was unable to divulge any details at the time.
"For us its about research centres and collaboration. The VALCRI project has 18 collaborative institutions and the reason it was held here in Malta was because of the campus and the academics here, who are IT oriented and would have an interest in the project considering its about visual analytics".
Mrs Perry turned to the academics working in the Malta campus. "Staff at the University are primarily Maltese, however this could change in future". As an example, they said that in the Dubai campus the staff come from around 50 countries".
Praising one of Malta's own, She proudly spoke of Senior Lecturer Clifford de Raffaele and postgraduate alumna Ms. MicquellaGalea, who presented a presented a paper entitled 'Moving towards Knowledge Creating Schools' during a conference in Dubai, and out of 200 submissions were awarded "Best paper".
She further spoke about the students' achievements in robotics, where last year students' work between January and June was featured in a local gadget's show each week. "We are quite proud of this given that the campus is quite new".
According to the guardian league table, Middlesex University is ranked 86th this year, a jump from the 103rd position in 2014. She explained that in certain subjects, "we are very high up". She mentioned IT and Computer Science as one exemplary area.
Another report called Whatuni sees awards based solely on reviews written by current and past students. In these rankings, Middlesex University climbed 78 places from last year to 21st out of 113 in the "University of the Year" category.
Every Middlesex campus has different markets and as an example, she mentioned that the Mauritius campus specialises in law and in Dubai most courses focus on Business.
Her colleague Lesley Marks, explained that a small number of international students enrolled with the university this year, adding her surprise when they said they prefer to live in a quiet area. "We have secured some apartments close to campus in the St Julian's area and have more rented facilities than we need at the moment. We have a team here who works individually with the international students to ensure their requirements are met when arriving. If they want accommodation nearer to the campus they will help them find it".
"The majority of students in the London campus are international and thus we have experience with helping internationals".