The National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE) is currently undergoing a restructuring process, splitting the Quality Assurance section from the Accreditation section.
“Experience has shown us that the load on that unit was too heavy and the best way of tackling it was to split it in two, one for accreditation and one for quality assurance. The sensible way forward was to split the post into 2, which will see a Head of Quality Assurance and a Head of Accreditation,” said Chairman of the NCFHE Martin Scicluna.
He stressed that the work relating to the American University of Malta (AUM) “brought this home to us”. He explained that with the current structure, the NCFHE would have found it hard to cope, and a backlog of work relating to AUM was piling.
“We will see how this restructuring works over the next 12-18 months. I am confident this is the way to go”.
Mr Scicluna said that new positions opening up within the Commission, aside for the posts of Head of Accreditation and Head of Quality Assurance, are a likely possibility.
Mr Scicluna explained that the catalyst for this was former Head of the Quality Assurance Unit Sandro Spiteri who, the Chairman said “was due to leave”. Mr Scicluna hopes he will find another good job.
The Education Ministry, asked for their comments, said that “Due diligence linked to the ex-ante checks and during the accreditation processes will be the responsibility of Head Accreditation while ongoing due diligence during the active phase of the licence (when the entity is operational and offering courses) will be the responsibility of the Head Quality Assurance even through the external reviews”.
PN Shadow Minister for Education Therese Comodini Cachia said that the NCFHE’s search for a new director to the Head of the Quality Assurance Unit raises a lot of questions. “The main one is – why would the NCFHE not retain the person currently fulfilling this function when the person has experience in the field, has concluded a number of projects, and my meetings with Maltese and European stakeholders have shown that he is held in high esteem for the standards he follows in quality assurance?”.
As for the division between quality assurance and accreditation within the NCFHE “this may also lead to disjointed work whereby one unit seeks different standards from the same applicant. Expecting more applications to be submitted to NCFHE means it needs to have its human resources strengthened and strength does not come from internal divisions”.
Dr Comodini Cachia argued that “the Commission’s acceptance of political responsibility to issue licenses on the basis of national interest continues to endanger its own independence, even though the quality of its accreditation and quality assurance procedures heavily depend on the Council’s independence from political decisions”.