KSU rates Malta's progress on EU targets

Students have given Malta a mixed bag of ratings on various aspects of its progress towards the targets laid down by the European Union in order to achieve its envisioned European Higher Education Area.

In a report on the national Bologna Process implementation, presented at the conference, the University Students' Council awards as little as one star out of five for quality assurance but five out of five for the promotion of the European dimension in higher education.

Through the Bologna Declaration of 1999, EU ministers had put in motion a series of reforms needed to make higher education in European countries more compatible, comparable and competititve, as well as more attractive to the citizens of Europe and beyond. Concrete targets to make this vision a reality were set out in 2001.

Quality is seen to be at the heart of the European Higher Education Area, and ministers committed themselves to developing quality assurance at institutional, national and European levels. For example, by 2005, countries should have carried out an evaluation of their national quality assurance systems.

But Malta fails dismally in living up to its commitments in this area, according to the KSU's report. A national system for quality assurance does not even exist and there is "no stated intention" to set one up.

The students argue that the University of Malta's own quality assurance body cannot function as a national body. It serves no other higher education institution and lacks any accountability to another structure.

The KSU is also concerned about the lack of laws to control private higher education institutions, creating what it suspects is a thriving market in low quality degrees.

It also complains that the university's Quality Assurance Committee does not carry out enforcement, basing its work solely on trying to create a culture of quality through training and education.

"Furthermore, the university does not currently have a body tasked with hearing student complaints, a body which would serve to uncover quality abuses within the university and provide for their resolution in a short time frame."

In other areas, the students see Malta faring better. It receives three stars for higher education that is equally accessible to all, through free tuition and maintenance grants, and for a Bachelors/Masters/Doctorate system that fits in with European restructuring targets. However, the KSU has reservations about the high grades required for access to Masters courses and the numerus clausus that is imposed.

Two stars are awarded for mobility, with less than half of the Erasmus places taken up by students this year, partly due to "administrative obstacles", especially from certain faculties.

Three stars are given to the university for the implementation of the European Credit Transfer System, which facilitates student mobility. The KSU finds weaknesses in the assignment of values to credits and the failure of some departments to publish course catalogues.

In the adoption of a system of easily readable and comparable degrees, Malta only gets two stars, partly because of its failure to ratify the Lisbon Recognition Convention.

There are three stars for student participation. The KSU deems that its representatives on university authorities are mostly treated as "second class university citizens" and says the requirement of producing comparable data on the social and economic situation of students has not been met by Malta. However, it acknowledges that "the government has made every effort to remove social and economic obstacles towards access to higher education", mainly through its grant system.

The promotion of the European dimension in higher education receives a full five stars. "In this field, Malta can rightly claim to be a European leader," the KSU says, citing the several joint degrees offered, the participation in several European networks, and the added focus on European issues in practically all university courses.

And good ratings - four stars - are awarded for promoting the attractiveness of the European Higher Education Area (Malta having been "exemplary in its efforts to encourage students from outside the area to study here"); and for lifelong learning (efforts undertaken by the government signal "serious commitment" towards this principle).

The report was drawn up by Anthony F. Camilleri and Amanda Mercieca.