Analysis of the role of stakeholders in the regulatory processes of education, between ENQA reflections and the Maltese context, highlighting critical issues, regulatory instruments and current limits in institutional involvement.

In the European debate on the quality of higher education and training, stakeholder involvement is a structural element of regulatory governance systems. Recent analyses conducted by ENQA highlight how the decision-making processes of quality authorities must be based on systematic, transparent and documented consultation mechanisms, capable of including a plurality of institutional, academic, professional and social stakeholders.

In the 2025 ENQA thematic report, the focus is on the risk of self-referential regulation, in which quality authorities take on a regulatory and interpretative role without a structured discussion with the stakeholders of the system. According to ENQA, regulatory quality does not depend exclusively on regulatory consistency or alignment with ESG, but also on the legitimization of decision-making processes through the effective involvement of stakeholders.

The report emphasizes that stakeholder participation should not be understood as an episodic or formal consultation, but as an ongoing process, integrated into policy definition, regulatory review and impact assessment. In this sense, stakeholders become co-producers of quality, contributing operational skills, knowledge of the contexts and feedback deriving from the concrete implementation of the rules.

ENQA also recalls the importance of distinguishing between information, consultation and participation. Informing stakeholders is not the same as involving them; Consulting them without feedback on the results of the consultation risks reducing the process to a formal exercise. Participation, on the other hand, implies that the stakeholder’s observations are considered, motivated and, if not accepted, explicitly justified.

The Maltese framework between regulatory principles and regulatory practices

In the Maltese context, stakeholder involvement is formally recognised in the legislative and regulatory framework governing further and higher education. The Further and Higher Education Act (Cap. 607) gives the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority a broad regulatory mandate, accompanied by the principle of transparency and the implicit reference to dialogue with the sector.

The National Quality Assurance Framework and the accreditation and audit manuals repeatedly refer to the need to involve internal and external stakeholders in quality processes, in particular students, academic staff, employers and institutional partners. However, these references remain mainly located at the level of education providers, rather than at the level of regulatory decisions taken by the Authority.

In theory, the Maltese system provides for consultation and dialogue tools. In practice, stakeholder involvement in strategic decision-making processes appears limited and uneven. Decisions of systemic importance, such as the introduction of restrictions on languages of instruction or the definition of stringent criteria for online and distance delivery, have been adopted without a structured process of public consultation with the stakeholders directly impacted.

This gap between regulatory provision and operating practice raises questions about the quality of regulation and the sustainability of decisions in the medium term. Stakeholders in the sector, in particular providers, find themselves implementing rules that have already been defined, without having contributed to their formulation or without having been able to highlight critical application issues before their entry into force.