On again, off again: the appeals board that was, then wasn’t

After a period of turmoil at Malta’s higher education regulator, the appeals board responsible for assessing academic qualifications remains non-functional, according to the latest report by the Commissioner for Education within the Ombudsman’s Office.

Previously, two investigations that started from two separate complaints revealed that the appeals board – known formally as the Malta Qualifications Recognition Information Centre, or MQRIC – was not constituted for most of last year.

To make matters even more complicated, a separate investigation carried out by the commissioner on his own initiative further revealed that, following an unexplained decision to reappoint the board in September 2024 for a period of one year (as opposed to the legal standard of three years), which means that any decisions made by the board during that time may be invalid.

The education commissioner’s first investigation was initiated due to a complaint from an individual whose request for recognition was denied by the board. At the time, the board’s last meeting had occurred in January 2024, a full six months before the complainant’s request was rejected.

By September, the education commissioner was looking into the matter, with the ministry of education later informing the Ombudsman’s office that the board had been reconstituted in the same month.

In June of this year, the commissioner yet again received further complaints about the same issue, leading to further questions being raised about the status of the board. Last month, the board’s 12-month term expired, with no explanation as to why the board was not appointed for a full three years in the first place.

In his final opinion, the commissioner stated that “it beggars belief how a statutory Board with an important role in the education system can be left unconstituted for just under seven months.”

“During this period, the complainant – and no doubt others – could not even properly enquire about the state of his appeal, a situation which flies in the face of Directive 4.2 of the Standards for Service Excellence offered by the Public Administration to the Public and to Public Employees… such gross public maladministration is deplorable,” the note continues.

This was not the only instance of “gross public maladministration” that occurred within Malta’s higher education regulator, known formally as the Malta Further & Higher Education Authority (MFHEA).

In May, then-CEO Rose Anne Cuschieri attempted to defend the Authority’s embarrassing failure to perform to European standards, leading to Malta’s exclusion from the EU’s quality assurance registry.

Sources within the education sector who had spoken to The Shift referred to multiple instances in which the MFHEA had issued academic licenses to institutions with poor track records as the main reason why the regulator’s reputation was not considered credible.

Earlier this week, Cuschieri was replaced by a new CEO named James Perry Maia, who previously served as deputy director at MCAST’s business institute.