The University of Malta joined 600 universities and colleges from 40 countries and regions participating in the European Higher Education Fair (EHEF) which took place at the China World Trade Centre in Beijing. About 30,000 visitors are reported to have attended the fair.

Although Malta is not well-known in China, information booths set up by the university attracted much interest among visitors. Prospective students were interested in Malta’s location, culture, tradition and education potential.

The University of Malta’s International and EU Office has embarked on a series of international visits aiming to attract students to full-time studies at the university. This also included participation in the Education Expo Fair in Qingdao, Shandong province. The university representatives met student-recruitment agents and developed new collaborations in the Chinese provinces. The over-arching aims of the visit to China were to promote Malta’s excellent standards in higher education, the variety of courses on offer, and the availability and accessibility of English language courses in a country joining the Schengen Area, since Malta’s entry is very attractive to Chinese students.

Two other institutions from Malta - St Martin’s Institute of Information Technology, and LAL Malta and Gozo – were represented at the Beijing Fair. The Maltese delegations worked together to raise Malta’s profile among participants.

The Beijing Fair formed part of a series, organised by the European Commission through the Erasmus Mundus Programme, aiming at enhancing the visibility of European higher education outside the traditional European borders. This was the first time that the university’s International and EU Office was present at an EHEF activity.

The Ambassador of Malta to the People’s Republic of China, Karl Xuereb, attended the opening ceremony of the EHEF in Beijing and visited the UoM stand with Jan Figel, EU Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, and Qidi Wu Vice-Minister of Education of China, and Serge Abou, EU Ambassador, Delegation of the European Commission to China and Mongolia.

The university launched its new promotional materials at the Beijing Fair. The attractive DVD projection and the colourful brochure written in Chinese were highly appreciated by visitors, while DVDs from the Malta Tourism Authority provided passers-by with vivid images of the Maltese islands. Moreover, Malta was mentioned in the Beijing Evening News, one of the best selling newspapers in China.