Who regulates higher education in Malta, issues licences and oversees quality? This article opens a series mapping the Maltese further and higher education framework for professionals, providers and readers seeking to understand the system.

When a foreign educational institution contacts us to explore the possibility of accreditation in Malta, the first thing we do is explain how the system works. It seems trivial, but it is not. The Maltese regulatory framework of higher education is the result of a regulatory stratification that combines primary law, subordinate legislation, technical manuals, accreditation standards and operational communications. Each of these levels responds to different logics, has a different legal authority, and produces different consequences for those who work in the system. 

The confusion between these levels is one of the main sources of strategic error for providers entering the Maltese market. There are those who treat a technical guideline as if it were law, and those who treat an Act of Parliament as if it were an operational indication that can be modified. Both mistakes are costly, and often avoidable if you start from the right map. 

With this first article in the editorial series Understanding the regulatory framework of further and higher education in Malta, MQE aims to offer professional audiences a guidance tool. It is not a legal analysis in the technical sense,that is up to the lawyers,but a popular reconstruction, based exclusively on public sources, of how the system is structured. In the next articles we will go into detail about each pillar: the primary law Chapter 607, the subordinate legislation S.L. 607.03, the MFHEA Board, the Quality Assurance Committee, the role of the Minister, the technical tools of the Authority, the dismissal process. This first contribution serves to provide the overall framework. 

The four levels of the Maltese regulatory system

The first step to orient oneself is to understand that the regulatory system of further and higher education in Malta operates on four distinct levels, in a hierarchical relationship with each other. Each level produces regulatory instruments with different legal authority, produced by different subjects, and modifiable through different procedures. 

First Level — The Primary Law: Chapter 607 

At the top of the system is the Further and Higher Education Act, Chapter 607 of the Laws of Malta. It is a primary law, i.e. an Act of the Maltese Parliament, approved according to the ordinary legislative procedure and amendable only by a new Act of Parliament. 

Chapter 607 sets out the basic principles of the system: it establishes the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) as the competent authority, defines its functions, powers and bodies, and gives the Minister responsible for Education the power to enact the subordinate legislation necessary to implement the Act. It is, in other words, the constitutional framework of the sector. 

Everything that happens in the regulatory system of higher education in Malta must, in the last resort, be grounded in Chapter 607. No inferior act can contradict it, and no subject ,not even the Authority,can exercise powers that the law has not expressly attributed to him. 

Second level — Subordinate legislation: S.L. 607.03 

Just below the primary law is Subsidiary Legislation 607.03, called the Further and Higher Education (Licensing, Accreditation and Quality Assurance) Regulations. This is subordinate legislation, enacted by the Minister responsible for education through the instrument of the Legal Notice, in implementation of the power conferred on him by Article 25 of Chapter 607. 

S.L. 607.03 is the document that translates the principles of primary law into operational rules. It establishes the categories of providers that can obtain a license, defines the application procedures, regulates the accreditation powers of the Authority, defines the conditions for the revocation and suspension of licenses, and dictates the rules of quality control. It was originally issued in 2012 and was subsequently amended by Legal Notice 150 of 2015. 

“Subordinate legislation is the instrument through which the Minister translates the principles of primary law into concrete operating rules. It can only be modified by means of a new ministerial Legal Notice.” 

It is important to underline one point: subordinate legislation, although issued by the Minister and not by Parliament, has full legal force and is binding on all subjects of the system, including the Authority itself. Amending S.L. 607.03 requires a new ministerial Legal Notice; it cannot be done through acts of the Authority. 

Third level — The Authority’s guidelines and technical tools 

At the third level are the technical tools produced by the MFHEA in implementation of the powers conferred on it by Chapter 607 and S.L. 607.03. These include: 

• Accreditation manuals, such as the EQA Accreditation Manual for external quality assessment and the Provider Accreditation Licensing manuals for the licensing process; 
• The accreditation standards of the programmes, codified in the New Programme Accreditation Standards and Procedures; 
• The National Quality Assurance Framework for Further and Higher Education, which defines the architecture of the Maltese quality system; 
• The specific guidelines issued by the Authority in particular matters, such as those on online and blended learning. 

These instruments have a precise legal character: they are acts of the Authority adopted in execution of the regulatory framework established by primary law and subordinate legislation. They specify and apply existing rules, but they cannot create new ones outside the limits of what the law has attributed to the Authority. 

S.L. 607.03 makes explicit reference to these instruments. For example, Article 8(8) states that the Authority “shall make and publish guidelines” to establish the information that providers must provide in their licence applications. Article 12(1) refers to the “guidelines made and published by the Commission in accordance with these regulations” as the source of the conditions that may be imposed on licences. The system, in other words, explicitly provides for a regulatory space for the Authority’s technical acts, but delimits it. 

Fourth level — Communications and operational acts 

At the fourth level are the Communications issued by the MFHEA, typically signed by the Chief Executive Officer or by the individual Units (Higher Education Unit, Further Education Unit). These are institutional communication tools, through which the Authority informs providers of operational positions, clarifications, procedural indications, and updates to the framework. 

Communications are a useful and legitimate tool and are an ordinary part of the regulatory life of the sector. However, it is important to recognize their nature: they are neither primary law, nor subordinate legislation, nor formal guidelines under S.L. 607.03. They are acts of communication within the administrative apparatus, which presuppose and apply the regulatory framework of the higher levels, but do not modify it. 

“A Communication is an institutional communication tool: it presupposes and applies the regulatory framework but does not change it. The distinction is important for those who work in the system.” 

Who does what: the map of subjects

Next to the instrument map, it is equally important to have a map of the subjects of the system. Who adopts what? Who decides what? Let’s see the four main players. 

The Maltese Parliament 

Parliament is the body with the primary legislative function. It is the entity that has adopted Chapter 607 and that could, through a new Act, modify it. Its intervention in the sector is episodic but of the highest rank: it establishes the fundamental principles and assigns powers to other subjects. 

The Minister responsible for Education 

The Minister for Education is the person to whom Chapter 607 gives the power to enact the subordinate legislation necessary to enforce the Act. Section 25 of Chapter 607 lists of several matters on which the Minister may legislate by regulation, and expressly includes in (i) the licensing, accreditation, validation, quality assurance and recognition processes. 

The Minister exercises this power through the instrument of the Legal Notice, which has the force of law and is placed in the regulatory hierarchy immediately below the primary law. Amendments to S.L. 607.03 have historically been introduced through ministerial Legal Notices — such as Legal Notice 150 of 2015 which significantly updated the original framework. 

The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) 

The MFHEA is the industry’s regulatory authority, established by Chapter 607 and operating in its current form since 2021, when it replaced the previous National Commission for Further and Higher Education (NCFHE). The Authority has its own legal personality, contractual capacity, and an internal system of bodies and functions. 

The functions of the MFHEA are predominantly executive in nature: the Authority applies the regulatory framework established by primary law and subordinate legislation, accrediting providers and programmes, issuing, renewing, suspending and revoking licences, conducting external quality audits, and maintaining public registers of accredited providers. 

The Authority also has limited technical-regulatory power: it can issue guidelines, manuals, standards and procedures within the limits of what the regulatory framework has attributed to it. This power is an important space in the regulatory life of the sector, but it is a delimited space and not a general regulatory power. 

The internal organs of the MFHEA 

The MFHEA is not a monolithic entity. It is an authority divided into distinct statutory bodies, each with its own functions. The main ones are the Board and the Quality Assurance Committee. 

The Board is the top body of the Authority, chaired by a Chairperson appointed by the Prime Minister, and composed of a limited number of members representing different areas of expertise (legal, accounting, educational, rights of persons with disabilities). The Board is the entity to which Chapter 607 assigns the strategic direction and ultimate decision-making authority of the Authority. 

The Quality Assurance Committee is a specific committee, established pursuant to Article 4(4) of S.L. 607.03, with the task of carrying out the licensing, accreditation, and quality assurance functions of the Authority under these regulations. The official MFHEA website describes the Committee as the technical (expertise) arm of the Authority and specifies that the Committee’s decisions require adoption by the Authority’s board for their validity and enforcement. The Committee is therefore the technical-expert arm of the Authority, but its decisions acquire validity and effectiveness only through formal adoption by the Board. 

The Board and Committee are also staffed by the Authority’s executive structures: the Chief Executive Officer, the Units (Higher Education Unit, Further Education Unit), the Licensing, Accreditation, Quality Assurance and Validation offices. These are the structures that apply the framework to the acts of the individual provider daily. 

The European dimension: the Maltese system is not isolated

A map of the Maltese regulatory system would be incomplete without considering its European dimension. Higher education in Malta does not operate within a purely national framework: it is part of a network of European standards, frameworks and bodies that exert a concrete influence on the domestic system. 

The main reference point is the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), established by the Bologna Process, and its Standards and Guidelines for Quality Assurance in the European Higher Education Area (ESG 2015). ESGs define the basic principles that every national quality system in the higher education sector must comply with and serve as a reference for the assessment of national quality agencies. 

The MFHEA is affiliated with the European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education (ENQA)the European network of quality agenciesand its work is periodically evaluated based on ESG compliance. The European Quality Assurance Register for Higher Education (EQAR) is the public register of European agencies recognised as compliant and is a central transparency tool for the system. 

All this means that the Maltese regulatory framework, even when it operates through purely domestic instruments (national law, ministerial regulations, acts of the Authority), moves in a context of European standards, principles and values that condition its evolution. Understanding the Maltese system also means understanding its place in this wider context. 

The categories of providers: who can get a license

Having concluded the institutional map, it is useful to close this first article of the series with an element of operational concreteness: who can obtain a license to operate as a provider of further or higher education in Malta. 

S.L. 607.03, in Article 9(1) and in the Second Schedule, establishes five categories of providers: 

• University — a provider organized as a university, authorized to provide higher education programs including self-awarded ones; 
• Higher Education Institution — institution of higher education (not university), authorized to deliver higher education programs; 
• Further Education Institution (beyond compulsory schooling, up to MQF Level 4), authorised to deliver further education programmes; 
• Further Education Centre — a centre for further education, authorised to deliver non-self-awarded further education programmes; it must be established as a natural person, not as a legal person; 
• Tuition Centre — a tuition centre, authorised to provide courses not part of compulsory education, defined on a case-by-case basis in the licence. 

These five categories are established by subordinate legislation and define the perimeter of the possibilities of accreditation in the Maltese system. They can only be modified through a new ministerial Legal Notice. 

There is also a special category, that of self-accrediting providers which currently are: the University of Malta (up to MQF Level 8), the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology (up to MQF Level 7), and the Institute of Tourism Studies (up to MQF Level 7). These are institutions that, by virtue of their public nature and legislative status, are authorized to independently accredit their programs without going through the MFHEA’s external accreditation process. 

Conclusion: A map, not a maze 

The regulatory system of further and higher education in Malta is articulated, but not labyrinthine. Once the four levels of legislation (primary law, subordinate legislation, the Authority’s technical instruments, operational acts) and the four main actors (Parliament, Minister, MFHEA, the Authority’s internal bodies) are understood, the system reveals a coherent logic, based on the classic principles of the rule of law: hierarchy of sources, express attribution of powers, separation between regulatory and executive functions. 

This internal coherence is one of the strengths of the Maltese system and contributes to the credibility of Maltese qualifications in the wider European context. Understanding it is not an academic exercise: it is a concrete tool for those who work in the system, for those who want to enter it, and for those who have to follow its evolution.