ESF 1.227 Making Quality Visible

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​		ESF Project 1.227 ‘Making Quality Visible’ had the aim to foster a national culture of quality in further and higher education provision by preparing the necessary procedures and mechanisms for the correct auditing of further and higher education institutions in Malta.  Through this project the NCFHE implemented its legal obligation to set up a national external quality audit system that complements the internal quality assurance mechanisms of individual further and higher education entities.  A key player in the project process was the Network of Quality Assurance Professionals in Further and Higher Education (Net-QAPE) that has been set up as part of the project. The aim of Net-QAPE was to bring together all personnel involved in quality assurance in the sector so as to provide concrete and on-going support, up skilling and continuous professional development. The main deliverable of ‘Making Quality Visible’ was the National Quality Assurance for Further and Higher Education in Malta. It provides guidance to educational institutions that embark on the processes of Internal and External Quality Assurance in order to enhance the learning outcomes provided through their educational programmes. This also led to the development of the Manual of Procedures for External Quality Assurance which set out the procedures for the implementation of external quality audits.​	​

 
Another highlight of the project was an internal and external audit within the two of the main state further and higher education institutions, namely MCAST and the ITS. This was conducted as part of the development process leading to the launch of the external audit system. The experience of conducting such an audit was innovative in itself with ACQUIN, a German higher education quality assurance agency with extensive national and cross-border experience, providing the lead in this external audit process as the transnational partner in the project. The project also assisted NCFHE in building its capacity to support an external audit, and equally important to familiarise all local institutions with audit procedures including self-assessment. In addition, 30 student evaluators with vocational and tertiary education backgrounds, 40 peer experts, and 4 NCFHE members of staff were trained in various aspects related to external quality audits.

The Project partners were:

The University of Malta

The Malta College for Arts, Science andTechnology (MCAST)

The Institute for Tourism Studies (ITS)

The Department for Lifelong Learning

ACQUIN​, the transnational partner of the project and an established cross-border Higher Education Quality Assurance Agency based in Germany.

Final Report

Qualitative

Quantitative

Full Report​

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