Cap. 607 ст. 2Interpretation.     Cap. 451.

In this Act unless the contents otherwise requires:

"accreditation" means the formal approval by the competent authority established under this Act or any regulations made thereunder, that the operation of a further or higher education provider, or that an educational programme pegged against levels within the Malta Qualifications Framework, meets quality standards;

"Authority" means the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority established by this Act;

"award" means an accredited programme of studies awarded as such and pegged to the Malta Qualifications Framework;

"certificate" means the confirmation of a completion of a programme or learning outcome including formal, informal and non-formal;

"financial year" means the period of twelve (12) months ending on the thirty-first of December of any year:

Provided that, for the purposes of this Act, the first financial year in respect of any entity shall consist of the period which starts running on the date of the coming into force of the relative articles of this Act relating to such entity, and ending on the thirty-first

(31) December of the following year;

"formal learning" means learning that occurs in an organised and structured context and is explicitly designated as learning in terms of objectives and outcomes, time or learning support. Formal learning is intentional from the learner’s point of view and leads to formal certification;

"function" includes any responsibility, power and duty;

*All provisions are in force excluding article 17, see Legal Notice 32 of 2021. †Article 17 came in force with Legal Notice 63 of 2024. "further education" means all non-compulsory formal learning which serves to obtain a national qualification classified up to and including level 4 of the Malta Qualifications Framework, or a foreign qualification at a comparable level;

"Government" means the Government of Malta;

"higher education" means all non-compulsory formal learning or research which serves to obtain a national qualification classified at level 5 or higher of the Malta Qualifications Framework, or a foreign qualification at a comparable level;

"informal learning" means learning resulting from daily activities related to work, family or leisure and which is not organised or structured in terms of objectives, time or learning support. Informal learning is in most cases unintentional from the learner’s perspective;

"learning" includes education and training;

"licence" means a licence issued to a provider in accordance with the provisions of this Act or any regulations made thereunder, authorising a provider to provide further or higher education in Malta;

"licence holder" means the person in whose name a licence is issued under this Act;

"licensing" means the process in accordance with the provisions of this Act or any regulations made under this Act for the licensing and periodic reporting required from providers to establish themselves or to attain or maintain a specific status, or to confer national qualifications or foreign qualifications at a comparable level;

"lifelong learning" includes all kinds of learning activities that an individual undertakes throughout life, with the aim of acquiring certification and improving attitudes, values, knowledge, skills and competences, and acquiring qualifications that enhance an individual’s personal and social dimension as well as the prospects of a better career;

"Malta Qualifications Framework" means the national framework for lifelong learning, being the national instrument for the development and classification of awards and qualifications according to a set of criteria, established through descriptors and applicable to a different set of levels, as provided by this Act or any regulations made under this Act;

"Minister" means the Minister responsible for education, and includes, within the limits of any given authority, any person who is specifically authorised by the Minister for any of the purposes of this Act, and "Ministry" shall be construed accordingly; "non-formal learning" means learning embedded in a planned activity organised outside the formal educational system, which activity is not explicitly designed as learning but which contains an important learning component;

"prescribed" means prescribed by regulations made under this Act;

"programme" means any course of study accredited by the Authority which serves to obtain an award or a qualification classified within the Malta Qualifications Framework or to a foreign recognised and comparable qualifications framework;

"programme accreditation" means the formal approval of the Authority in accordance with this Act, of the status, legitimacy and appropriateness of a programme;

"provider" means any individual or body corporate licensed by the Authority to provide education services in or from Malta;

"provision" means the act of providing further or higher education in or from Malta, and includes full-time and part-time, formal and informal taught, research or vocationally-oriented programmes, distance learning, e-learning, partnerships with other providers or business entities, sub-contracting of services, franchising and offshore activities of a provider;

"public officer" has the same meaning as is given to it by article 124 of the Constitution;

"qualification" means an accredited programme of studies awarded as such and pegged to the Malta Qualifications Framework;

"quality assurance" refers to one or more processes which:

(a) safeguard the quality of further and higher education within the economic, social and cultural context, on a national, European and international level; and

(b) enhance and ensure the use of approved measures as a means of improving the quality of institutional governance and the students’ well-being, teaching, learning, training and research towards a holistic quality educational experience;

"quality assurance audit" means that it shall include an external evaluation process of the internal quality assurance mechanisms adopted by a provider and the provider’s adherence to any of his obligations of licensing, accreditation and other requirements set forth by the Authority in order to continuously monitor and improve the operation of a provider or of a programme; "recognition" means any formal acknowledgment by the Malta

Qualifications Recognition Information Centre, established under article 6 of the Mutual Recognition of Qualifications Act, or by any other European Network of Information Centre or National Academic Recognition Information Centre (ENIC-NARIC) of the accreditation status and academic level of an academic qualification.