Higher Education
Every higher and further education institution in Malta operates under one authority. The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority, MFHEA, licenses providers, accredits programmes, and oversees quality assurance across the entire sector. No parallel system exists, and self-accreditation is not an option. Standards follow the European Qualifications Framework and the Bologna Process.
What determines the path is what you plan to teach.
Three Licence Categories
MFHEA issues three types of provider licence, and the distinction comes down to the level of qualification an institution intends to offer.
A Further Education Institution covers vocational and professional programmes up to MQF Level 4. At Level 5 and above, the Higher Education Institution licence applies, taking in undergraduate and postgraduate qualifications. The University licence sits at the top of the framework: full MQF spectrum from Level 1 to Level 8, a research mandate, and the right to award doctoral degrees.
Each category carries different requirements for governance, staffing, infrastructure, and fees.
Two Stages Before the Licence
Financial due diligence comes first. MFHEA assesses the applicant's financial standing, corporate structure, and business plan before the educational review begins. Incomplete or unconvincing submissions are returned, and the clock stops.
Once financial eligibility is established, the full accreditation process begins. Governance, academic structure, staffing, proposed programmes, physical premises. A panel visits the site. The Quality Assurance Committee reviews the full submission, and conditions may be set before the licence is issued.
Every Programme, Individually
The provider licence authorises the institution to operate. It does not automatically approve any programme of study.
MFHEA evaluates each programme on its own merits, from learning outcomes and credit structure through to assessment methods and alignment with the Malta Qualifications Framework. Programmes are mapped to MQF levels using ECTS credits. A bachelor's degree at Level 6 requires a minimum of 180 ECTS. At Level 7, a master's requires 90.
Eleven Standards
Before it issues a licence, MFHEA requires a complete Internal Quality Assurance framework. A working document, typically running to 50 pages or more, covering eleven mandatory standards.
Institutional governance, programme design and approval, student-centred learning, teaching staff, learning resources, cyclical external review. Each standard demands documented policies, procedures, and evidence that the institution can implement them.
External Quality Assurance audits take place every five years after licensing. MFHEA's Compliance Unit also conducts spot checks and monitors ongoing operations. Providers that fail to maintain standards or remain inactive face restrictions or licence revocation.
Building the Academic Team
An institution is only as credible as the people who teach in it. When academic staff hold qualifications from outside Malta, those qualifications need formal recognition through the Malta Qualifications Recognition Information Centre, MQRIC, which sits within MFHEA.
For institutions building faculty from across Europe or beyond, qualification recognition runs alongside the licensing process, not after it.
Provider licensing, programme accreditation, quality assurance frameworks, venue compliance, qualification recognition. They are parallel workstreams. Coordinating them requires experience with the process and people who are present on the ground.
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