University of Malta (UM) is committed to student-centred methods and practices in its educational approaches and mission. The interests of students, and therefore their voice and that of their representatives, are considered to be of prime importance. To this end, at an organisational level, students are considered to be an integral part of practically all boards and committees of the University. This ensures that students are part of policy-making and decision-taking at all levels of the University’s administrative structure.
UM’s commitment to a student-centred learning environment may be evidenced by the involvement and representation of students in various levels of governance, therefore placing students as equal partners. Similarly, the involvement of students in Quality Assurance (QA) mechanisms is at every level:
UM acknowledges the need for the continuous development of the student-centred learning environment through regular review, consultation with students, regular support and professional development for teachers
UM has well-established mechanisms in place to support students with diverse needs and positively welcomes students with different abilities and ways of learning. We are committed to making the necessary changes to ensure that an equitable environment is created, while celebrating diversity, promoting inclusion and protecting the human rights of all individuals working or studying within this institution. Formal support is tendered both in the long term as well as in an ad hoc manner, often urgently and on a temporary basis. Such quickly needed support can be both formal and informal and would typically include asynchronous learning/teaching experiences, one-to-one advice and pastoral support. To uphold this aim the University has a Gender+ Equity Plan for 2022-2025 and is devoted to developing and promoting these values to students and staff. The primary aim of the plan is to address any structural and cultural barriers to inclusion at the University.
When permanent support is deemed necessary on the basis of an independent professional assessment, students and entities involved in the learning process are advised and supported by the ACCESS - Disability Support Unit. Lecturing and other teaching practices are adapted to accommodate specific needs of students who have an impairment, illness or specific learning difficulty. This ensures inclusion and equity according to clearly defined needs. The Unit’s website also contains clear information about practical modalities of support aimed at academic and administrative staff.
Student-centred support at UM is also tendered via formal procedures regarding fitness to study, train and practise. The Policy of Fitness to Practise outlines general principles for the provision of support to all students following programmes of study at UM. It also sets out protocols and administrative procedures for investigating allegations or concerns about fitness to study, train and practise. The need for a formal policy stemmed from the University’s responsibility towards the public, as well as the concern for the welfare of all its students and staff. The University has the responsibility to ensure that students are not only academically competent, but also that those who successfully complete professional programmes are fit to practise within their chosen profession at the start of their career and in compliance with the respective statutory body regulating their profession.
A student-focused Help Hub was inaugurated in May 2022 with the specific aim of providing services through an easily accessible space providing comprehensive information and the necessary assistance and guidance to all students about life on campus. The information available includes matters relating to student wellbeing, admission, tuition and enrolment fees, stipends, student accommodation, exchange programmes, access arrangements, certification, etc.
The goals and priorities for learning, teaching and assessment at UM are set out in the Strategic Plan 2020-2025 (Theme 1: Learning and Teaching).
In common with most Higher Education institutions, pedagogy at UM has been constantly evolving over these past years to better support 21st century skills and ideas. Teaching has been expanding to support new forms of learning, like interactive and collaborative project-based, case-based and inquiry-based learning, online and remote learning and to accommodate more flexible schedules. Unpredicatibly and unprecedently, the COVID-19 scenario accelerated new forms of learning and teaching at a rapid rate.
In early 2023, the lectures at UM are predominantly held in class. Nonetheless, a significant number of academics have retained online teaching in their study-units. Several study-units are now being delivered in blended or fully online modality. UM is supporting academics to adopt online teaching where this leads to effective student learning. This support includes: adjustments to the procedures regulating the approval of blended and online study-units, the provision of academic training on online teaching and learning, and supporting projects that enhance online teaching and learning. For example, the UM is leading an EU Erasmus+ Teaching Online: Video Initiatives in Digital Education and Mobile Learning (TOVID). The main output of this project involves a series of short videos where UM academics talk about their experience of online learning and teaching.
In these past years, pedagogy methods at UM have been shifting focus from beyond basic memorisation and application of procedures to facilitating and empowering higher-order learning and deep learning including thinking skills, effective communication and greater autonomy. Blended learning and the use of flipped classroom are on the increase. Other pedagogical methods are used variably while tutorials on a physical basis are extensively used at UM.
Instruction in the health-related sciences is sui generis as it involves small group teaching, often involving actual clinical material, and actual patients. Over the past few years clinical teaching has increasingly involved manikins, patient simulators and actors. This may be further evidenced through the successful implementation of community-based learning through the mobile dental unit and clinical assessments at the Faculty of Dental Surgery.
Academics are consistently encouraged to plan learning and teaching that provides different ways of representing content knowledge, different means of engagement as well as to provide different modes of assessment. This is crucial at the planning and design stage and is reinforced through the programme and study-unit approval process (see Standard 3) by the Academic Programmes Quality and Resources Unit (APQRU).
UM encourages reflective teaching and peer-to-peer observation among its teaching staff (Peer-to-Peer Observation and Reflection mailshot [PDF]). This fruitful practice has been endorsed by the Quality Support Unit and shared as an example of good practice through the Quality Mailshot Initiative. Furthermore, the Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) promotes a student-centred learning environment by fostering discussions and professional dialogue on quality learning, teaching and assessment as part of the PPR process. Good practices that promote learner autonomy and active learning [PDF] are identified and shared through the Quality Mailshot Initiative.
UM aims to offer the best possible environment and learning experience to encourage students to perform at their full potential. Students play a critical role in the evaluation, development and enhancement of the quality of this learning experience. Feedback from students allows the University to evaluate how its service provision is viewed by its most important group of stakeholders, namely its students. Besides providing students with an opportunity to comment on the quality of the learning and teaching environment at the University, feedback ensures that academic members of staff and Boards of Studies are made aware of problems perceived or encountered by students, and provides an opportunity for the conduct of self-evaluation and revision, where necessary.
The institutional study-unit feedback survey is conducted twice a year through a questionnaire which consists of 17 close-ended questions and a free-text section which allows the students to submit any further comments. Submission of feedback can be done either before or after the assessments are held via the My UM app or the students’ portal.
Feedback is collected also at FICS level and is typically run as personal initiatives of individual lecturers, programme coordinators and departments or at times at FICS level. The principle of such surveys is similar; however, they usually differ in the type of responses requested in that they are usually topic-specific. Most of these surveys are professionally designed, anonymous and well-run. Very often, student organisations are involved in the feedback collection at FICS level.
In support to further encourage student feedback, the QAC has presented a Student Feedback Policy during the Senate meeting of 26 January and which is currently going through a process of UM wide consultation.
The set of rules and regulations addressing the UM summative assessment system are designed not only to allow for fairness and transparency but also to protect students against arbitrary decisions and to ensure a robust, reproducible and valid process. A system of appeals in the form of requests for revisions and reconsiderations of examined material is in place. Final examinations leading to the award of degrees invariably include the input of external examiners according to established protocols. The engagement of external examiners is governed through the Visiting Lecturers and External Examiners Committee (VLEEC), on the basis of an established Standard Operating Procedure (SOP XRE-001).
The reports of external examiners are in turn reviewed for comprehensiveness, quality and utility of the remarks tendered. The assessment of the reports themselves is treated in the manner and with the thoroughness of research projects. A report on UM’s Visiting Examiners containing statistical data and excerpts from individual reports is drawn up at the end of each academic year and presented to the Senate for information and feedback. Moreover, there are sub-committees of the Senate for all decisions related to assessment and student outcomes, including assessment appeals, assessment disciplinary cases, fitness to practise and absence from assessment, all of which support consistency of assessment decisions across UM. To further strengthen quality assessment practices that are consistent and fair, the QAC has presented a comprehensive Assessment Policy during the Senate meeting of 26 January.
