- 2015Approved/Agreed
- 2018Implementation
- 2019Implementation
- 2020Implementation
- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
- 2025Implementation
Background
In accordance with the Legal Notice No 296 of 2012, the National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE) (name changed in 2021 to Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA)) acts as the external verifier for VET providers.
Objectives
To provide guidance to education institutions that adopt internal and external quality assurance (QA) in order to enhance the learning outcomes provided through their educational programmes.
Description
The National quality assurance framework for further and higher education was launched in 2015, covering upper secondary and higher VET (IVET) including work-based learning (WBL), CVET as well as other types of further, higher and adult formal education offered by State and private providers. The framework implements legal provisions on internal quality assurance and periodic external quality audits (every five years) and provides the conceptual context for this work. It is based on the European standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) and the quality cycle and the European quality assurance in vocational education and training (EQAVET) indicators.
- the NCFHE ensures that all further and higher academic and VET institutions have a clear internal quality assurance system in place and self-assess their performance periodically. Accreditation, initial and follow-up external quality audits of providers and programmes by NCFHE are mandatory requirements for licensing;
- guidelines and quality standards at VET provider level are used to promote a culture of continuous improvement. As a result, quality culture in Malta is a combination of internal QA mechanisms and an external QA system adapted to national and stakeholder needs;
- the same principles that apply to IVET on evaluation and review of VET providers are also applicable to CVET;
- the national approach to quality assurance in...
The National quality assurance framework for further and higher education was launched in 2015, covering upper secondary and higher VET (IVET) including work-based learning (WBL), CVET as well as other types of further, higher and adult formal education offered by State and private providers. The framework implements legal provisions on internal quality assurance and periodic external quality audits (every five years) and provides the conceptual context for this work. It is based on the European standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG) and the quality cycle and the European quality assurance in vocational education and training (EQAVET) indicators.
- the NCFHE ensures that all further and higher academic and VET institutions have a clear internal quality assurance system in place and self-assess their performance periodically. Accreditation, initial and follow-up external quality audits of providers and programmes by NCFHE are mandatory requirements for licensing;
- guidelines and quality standards at VET provider level are used to promote a culture of continuous improvement. As a result, quality culture in Malta is a combination of internal QA mechanisms and an external QA system adapted to national and stakeholder needs;
- the same principles that apply to IVET on evaluation and review of VET providers are also applicable to CVET;
- the national approach to quality assurance in VET includes a system that collects information on IVET graduates. In the official manual for quality assurance at VET provider level, one of the indicators follows up students and their transition to work. Information is collected by VET providers who forward their data to the NCFHE. VET providers use the information to introduce new VET programmes that tackle skills gaps identified by the industry. The NCFHE also collects information through the graduate tracer study, the employee skills survey (which collects evidence about the number of employees in different sectors);
- the Education Act empowers the NCFHE to collect data both from public and private education providers.
The National quality assurance framework for further and higher education was launched in 2015 covering upper secondary and higher VET including work-based learning (WBL), CVET as well as other types of further, higher and adult formal education offered by State and private providers
Also, in 2015, Jobsplus carried out the employability index study (which identifies students that may be at a risk of underemployment due to mismatch between their educational attainment and current occupation).
In 2018, following the adoption of the proposal to establish regular graduate tracking in Europe, the European Commission commissioned the EUROGRADUATE pilot project.
Every year the NCFHE collects the annual student headcount statistics from further and higher education providers in Malta. This data collection provides insights into student enrolments in further and higher education in addition to providing added data on graduates who complete their studies in that year.
The EUROGRADUATE pilot project, seeks to investigate the feasibility of establishing a European graduate tracking survey. The pilot study was conducted in eight countries: Austria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Malta and Norway. The NCFHE is responsible for implementing the study in Malta.
In September 2020 the NCFHE completed the EUROGRADUATE report for Malta.
The NCHFE has been nominated as national expert for the EC funded project for capacity building for a European graduate tracking initiative in higher education (EAC-2020-0312).
The overall objective of this project is to support the European Commission’s effort in designing, coordinating, implementing, monitoring and helping the EU and European Economic Area countries to build their capacities to prepare the ground for a European graduate tracking mechanism in higher education.
This capacity building intends to contribute to achieving the objectives of the Council recommendation on tracking graduates, and will be implemented in close cooperation with the countries concerned. The contract has several key tasks:
- Task 1: Provide a baseline analysis of capacity shortages in individual countries (July-September 2020);
- Task 2: Produce tailor-made strategic roadmaps for meeting capacity requirements in individual countries (September-December 2020);
- Task 3: Implement the roadmaps in beneficiary countries (January-December 2021);
- Task 4: Final assessment of the state of readiness for a European graduate tracking mechanism (January-April 2022).
From January 2021 the NCFHE is participating in the project with its new name (i.e. as Malta’s Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA)).
Further to the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority’s (MFHEA) participation in the Eurograduate pilot project, in 2021 it also committed to participated in the second phase of the European pilot survey of higher education graduates, the Eurograduate project, with its new name [i.e. as Malta’s Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA)].
In June 2021, MFHEA published the Guidelines for external quality assurance audits of further education institutions and further education centres, intended to support such entities in preparing for the external quality assurance (EQA) audits conducted by the MFHEA.
In addition, the MFHEA published the National action plan for quality assurance development in Malta, further to the Erasmus+ project Supporting European QA agencies in meeting the ESG (ESG stands for Standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the EHEA).
Data collection for the Eurograduate 2022 project started in November 2022. Given that the number of annual graduates in Malta is under 30 000, it was feasible to carry out Eurograduate 2022 in the form of a census among graduates.
In December 2022, the MFHEA published a report on the Implementation of quality assurance in VET institutions – a manual for VET providers. This document was a result of the process initiated by the MFHEA on the updating of the 2013 Implementation of quality assurance in VET institutions manual, which was produced as a result of the EQAVET Malta project Quality assurance tool for VET.
Data collection for Eurograduate 2022 continued in 2023.
Further to MFHEA’s participation in the Erasmus+ project Support to the European quality assurance in VET (EQAVET) national reference points (NRPs), the National handbook for VET providers was published. The main aim of this handbook is to guide VET institutions on how to improve their quality assurance system (QAS) and enhance a quality culture in their organisations as well as to support them in carrying out internal assessments and evaluations as self-assessment, internal quality assurance audit, and collecting feedback from their stakeholders on a regular basis.
In August 2023, MFHEA also published the Statistics and analysis of licensed providers in Malta based on EQAVET indicators, with the reference academic year 2020/21.
In November 2023, MFHEA released the Employer survey analysis report. This report is the result of an MFHEA-initiated research project, as part of the National VET team-Annual activity planning co-funded by the Erasmus+ programme. The research was aimed at collecting and analysing data from employers to identify key challenges faced by businesses. Employers provided information on skills gaps, skills shortages and other issues in the labour market, what action they are taking to address these, and the need for upskilling and reskilling in various sectors of the national workforce and in their own entities, along with measures instituted to ensure quality in work-based learning. Employers also gave their views on current education provision, including vocational education and training, work-based learning and ways to strengthen collaboration between the MFHEA, education providers and employers to promote a mindset of lifelong learning, enhance quality in education and work-based learning, and shape courses based on real market needs.
Finally, the MFHEA published its Quality Assurance development plan, thereby outlining the goals and objectives for development for 2023 up to 2025.
In March 2024, the Eurograduate 2022 country report on Malta was published.
A new round of the project, EUROGRADUATE 2026, has started in September 2025
Bodies responsible
- Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA)
- National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE) (until 2021)
Target groups
Entities providing VET
- VET providers (all kinds)
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers to further development of national quality assurance (QA) systems for IVET and CVET, for all learning environments (school-based provision and work-based learning, including apprenticeships) and all learning types (digital, face-to-face or blended), delivered by both public and private providers. These systems are underpinned by the EQAVET quality criteria and by indicative descriptors applied both at system and provider levels, as defined in Annex II of the VET Recommendation. The sub-category concerns creating and improving external and self-evaluation of VET providers, and establishing criteria of QA, accreditation of providers and programmes. It also covers the activities of Quality assurance national reference points for VET on implementing and further developing the EQAVET framework, including the implementation of peer reviews at VET system level.
High-quality and timely skills intelligence is a powerful policy tool, helping improve economic competitiveness and fostering social progress and equality through the provision of targeted skills training to all citizens (Cedefop, 2020). Skills intelligence is the outcome of an expert-driven process of identifying, analysing, synthesising and presenting quantitative and/or qualitative skills and labour market information. Skills intelligence draws on data from multiple sources, such as graduate tracking systems, skills anticipation mechanisms, including at sectoral and regional levels. Actions related to establishing and developing such systems fall under this thematic sub-category.
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). The National quality assurance framework: Malta. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2025 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/it/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28420