The University of Malta is once again at the forefront of a new venture by launching a Joint European Masters degree in Early Childhood Education and Care. Of particular interest is the fact that most of the teaching will occur on-line through a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). The University of Malta has been entrusted with the management of the VLE on behalf of all the partners, thus proving the University’s credibility as a promoter of best practice in the use of information technology in Education.

The co-ordinator of the Masters course, a product of an EU funded project, is Dr Valerie Sollars, a senior lecturer in Early Childhood Education and Head of Department of the Department of Primary Education within the University of Malta’s Faculty of Education. The importance of this degree cannot be under-stated for a number of reasons.

The field of Early Childhood Education and Care is an area in which Malta urgently needs to expand its expertise and training opportunities. Like other governments across Europe and elsewhere, the Maltese government is greatly aware of the need for high quality services in the field of early childhood education and care. Research has indicated that one of the major factors contributing to high quality provision relates to the training of staff working in the area. The more qualified the staff, the better the programme offered to young children. To date, Maltese personnel who wanted to specialize in the area could only do so abroad.

The mode of delivery of the course is perhaps one of the most novel aspects of this project. Apart from two intensive face-to-face programmes which will bring students together for a fortnight, the rest of the course will be delivered entirely on-line through a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). Not only will course participants be increasing their knowledge, experiences and skills in their chosen field of specialization, but they will be capitalizing on the opportunities which modern technologies offer, hence ensuring that they are aware of the benefits of technology and have first hand experience at using it.

Through EU funding, the programme was jointly developed and will be jointly delivered by six European institutions of international repute. The University of Malta has been the co-ordinating institution throughout. The other five participating institutions are the Martin-Luther-University of Halle-Wittenberg in Germany; Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland; Oslo University College, Norway; the University of Strathclyde, Scotland and Göteborg University in Sweden. This means that students who are registered on this course will be part of an international community of scholars together with dynamic and highly-respected researchers in the field of Early Childhood Education and Care.

Having a degree which is approved by a number of European institutions is in line with targets which have been highlighted, discussed and revisited in several Ministerial meetings, one of the most recent being the Heidelberg conference in March 2007. One of the challenges facing Europe in the struggle to improve quality services in the sector is the need for pre-primary education and care to be, “more present at universities throughout Europe and practitioners and academics in this area need to forge better links ”. One of the aims of the Joint Masters is to integrate research, professional development and policy at an advanced level.

Further information about the project and the Masters course, as well as application forms are available from the project website on http://www.em-ec.eu.

Dr Valerie Sollars, Head of the Department of Primary Education within the University of Malta’s Faculty of Education and Prof. Juanito Camilleri, Rector.