In 2019, the QAC launched its Quality Mailshot Initiative, in order to highlight good quality practices taking place across campus by means of occasional mailshots. This is an archive of all mailshots sent to date. Following the conclusion of an academic year, a final report on the respective mailshot series is available below:
If you have an example of good quality practice at your unit which you would like us to include in this mailshot series, please get in touch with us on qac@um.edu.mt.
The Quality Assurance Committee (QAC) reviews Quality Assurance at the University of Malta, supporting the transition towards a quality culture. Part of this task involves showcasing good quality practices underway at UM, or across one or more of its various units (faculties, departments, institutes, centres, schools and directorates).
As from the 2019/2020 academic year, the QAC will be occasionally sending brief mailshots to highlight and raise awareness about such initiatives.
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The University monitors its academic performance on a number of independent ranking systems such as U-Multirank, which compares similar universities on a number of areas. The number of international joint publications and scientific publications has been monitored since 2015.
The 2019 results indicate the fourth consecutive annual percentage increase in such publications, from 59% (2015) to 68% (2019). A more detailed overview of these results is available on Newspoint.
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The University monitors its performance in terms of its online presence through the independent ranking system Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.
In January 2020, the University of Malta is ranked 866th in the world, up from 1,243rd in July 2016, i.e. in the top 4% out of around 29,000 higher education institutions world-wide.
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Professor Stephen Montefort is the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery. As at 4th February 2020, he is the University's most cited academic on Google Scholar, with 11,598 citations. He is also a co-author of UM's most cited paper [PDF], which has garnered 3,954 citations since it was published in 2006. There are currently 619 UM academics with a public Google Scholar profile.
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Professor Charles Savona Ventura is Head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Faculty of Medicine & Surgery. He is one of a number of academics at the University of Malta who over the years has taken the initiative to systematically collect and analyse end-of-year anonymous feedback from his students. He then uses these results to review the department's provision.
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All Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) currently in force at the University of Malta can now be accessed.
To-date, the portal has 87 administrative, 55 technical and 169 academic SOPs.
The benefits of SOPs include improved consistency, better internal organization and communication, and a more standard performance across different units on campus. SOPs serve as training tools to ensure that the knowledge required to administer the university effectively is not lost. SOPs can be searched by title, entity, subject category or whether they apply to students or members of staff.
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The extraordinary circumstances brought about by the coronavirus pandemic have called for extraordinary responses. Amongst the most notable is the quick and almost total switch to on-line tuition in many universities located in affected countries, including the University of Malta.
In this context, the fully on-line B.Sc. Programme of Studies in Health Science, offered since 2009 by the Faculty of Health Sciences at UM and supported by the IT Services team, is a pioneer. A detailed admin guide is provided for each study-unit, for which there is also a road-map summarising the intended outcomes, resources, activities and assessment methods in each phase. The course includes a blend of real-time and asynchronous activities with timely feedback being provided throughout.
This format also enhances the receipt of students' and external examiners' feedback, leading to richer input and reduced turn-around time for course improvements.
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The International School for Foundation Studies promotes the practice of peer-to-peer observation and reflection. After mutual agreement to observe one or more of their colleagues' lectures, academics will reflect with that same colleague on how best to improve each other's teaching practice. Such processes can assist academics to rethink strategies to further enhance their teaching skills and promote student learning.
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The University of Malta has over 300 labs, and most generate chemical waste. A new Standard Operating Procedure (UNI-OP-003-01 [PDF] ) has been designed to streamline the management of chemical waste on campus.
To-date, some 50 members of staff have been trained on this SOP. Since 2014, 20 tonnes of chemical waste have been packaged and exported to approved collector sites.
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The University of Malta has been awarded European Social Funds for the project 'Skill development and life-long learning for technical, operational and laboratory staff'.
Through this project, the University will upskill its staff on Technical, H&S, Quality and Management skills. Courses on Quality and ISO standards have started, and will continue when UM restarts normal operations.
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The University of Malta has 7 academics with authored or co-authored publications that have garnered over 1000 citations on Google Scholar. They are listed alphabetically below, together with the subject of their publication:
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The University's Institutional Repository (OAR@UM) accepts scholarly, educational or administrative digital content created or owned by academics, support/technical staff and students.
In 2016, there were 12,615 items deposited in OAR@UM. As at the end of April 2020, the total number of deposited items stood at 46,973.
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In 2019, the simulation teaching labs of the Department of Nursing received their first-ever certification as a 'Standard of Best Practice'. The award was made by the International Nursing Association for Clinical Simulation and Learning (INACSL).
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The Master in Translation and Terminology Studies programme, offered by the Department of Translation and Terminology Studies at UM, has been selected by the European Commission for membership to the EMT (European Masters in Translation) network 2019-2024.
The programme offers specialisation streams in audiovisual, literary or technical translation. The audiovisual translation stream, coordinated by Dr Giselle Spiteri Miggiani, includes cutting edge technology in its course programme so as to bridge academic and professional practice. Hands-on sessions in multilingual dubbing translation adopt cloud-based software tools such as ZOOdubs, which enables students to practise individually by accessing the portal with their personal user accounts.
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The h-index is an author-level metric that combines a scholar's productivity with the citation impact of their publications. It is calculated by counting the number of publications for which an author has been cited by other authors at least the same number of times.
Professor Georgios Yannakakis, Director of the Institute of Digital Games, is Malta's highest ranked scholar by h-index (52). That means, at least 52 of his papers have each been cited at least 52 times. This places Prof. Yannakakis among the top researchers in the area of computer science and electronics.
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As from 2016, MATSEC started asking candidates for anonymous feedback following examination sessions. The feedback received is analysed and collated in reports which are made available online.
During the same year, MATSEC also started a process to adopt the same format in all examination papers. Students were consulted in order to identify the font which they perceived to be the clearest, and the chosen font (Verdana) is now used in all examination material. The results of this research are also available online [PDF] .
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The Department of Social Policy and Social Work holds two student progress meetings per year – one at the end of each semester once all results of the study-units have been issued. During these meetings, student performance is discussed and action is taken so as to support, encourage or praise any student that the staff would have noted. This ensures that the academic performance of each student is monitored and supported.
Furthermore, such meetings allow for a bird's eye view of student performance per study-unit, which may lead to changes in the assessment process and/or content delivery of said study-unit. This is another means by which the quality of each study-unit can be monitored.
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The Centre for Labour Studies (CLS) is Malta’s contact centre for the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions. The Foundation is a tripartite European Union Agency, whose role is to provide information, advice and expertise on working conditions and sustainable work, industrial relations, labour market change, quality of life, and public services. It supports the EU institutions and bodies, member states and social partners in shaping and implementing social and employment policies, as well as promoting social dialogue on the basis of comparative information, research and analysis.
The CLS has been contributing research and reports to the Foundation since 2003, by winning five back-to-back contracts. The sterling work of the CLS has been recently recognised in a quality audit exercise in which the Centre received the third highest rating of all EU-28 countries plus Norway. The audit investigated content quality, balance in reporting, style and presentation, command of English, and timeliness of delivery. The work of the CLS is promoted internationally through the Foundation’s website.
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The NOHA joint MA in International Humanitarian Action, run by the Department of International Relations (Faculty of Arts), is the largest Erasmus Mundus Master's programme of which UM forms part: each NOHA cohort comprises approximately 150 students, of which some 35 study at UM every year. It is among the select few that have achieved third term Erasmus Mundus status.
The NOHA consortium comprises eight delivering universities in Europe, including top-ranked institutions such as Uppsala University, University of Groningen and University College Dublin.
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This academic year, KSU has collaborated with UM's International Office to develop the KSU Buddy System. It matches local students with new, incoming international students, in order to facilitate their settling down in Malta and integration on our campus.
The 'buddy' offers support and guidance, especially during the first few days and weeks after an international student's arrival in Malta. Around 100 prospective buddies have so far pledged their support to over 50 international students.
Local students are encouraged to actively engage with international students, fostering opportunities for intercultural growth and exchange of knowledge and experiences.
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The University monitors its performance in terms of its online presence through the independent ranking system Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.
In February 2021, the University of Malta is ranked 839th in the world, up from 866th in January 2020, i.e. in the top 3% out of around 30,000 higher education institutions world-wide.
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The UM Library is committed to support the University’s vision by providing adequate academic information resources. While the Library invests heavily in online resources, print monographs published by UM academics remain a gem.
Prof. Horatio Cr Vella, lecturer in the Faculty of Arts, and Prof. Yosanne Vella, lecturer in the Faculty of Education, regularly donate copies of their publications to the UM Library. Being UM researchers as well as Maltese authors, their publications are of national interest and are now held at the Library's Melitensia Special Collection.
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The Department of Inclusion & Access to Learning within the Faculty of Education runs the ‘I Belong’ programme, which aims to provide a holistic approach to integration. Through this initiative, migrants living in Malta are introduced to Maltese culture and language, as part of the Migrant Integration Strategy & Action Plan (Vision 2020). The Department also offers a Diploma in Education for Cultural Mediation.
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Professor Rena Balzan, a retired Associate Professor at the Department of Physiology & Biochemistry, is one of UM’s most cited female academics. Her co-authored paper, 'Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy', has been cited over 7,200 times since it first appeared in 2016.
'Autophagy' is the natural, regulated mechanism of the cell that removes unnecessary or dysfunctional components. Defects in autophagy may lead to the accumulation of mutated, unfolded and degraded proteins, which can be toxic and manifest in ageing or in disease, particularly degenerative diseases.
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The Department of Nursing has introduced e-portfolios for undergraduate students. These innovative virtual portfolios have entirely replaced the formerly paper-based practice portfolios, which contained a formal collection of evidence pertaining to clinical learning.
This provides a live repository of students’ learning activities and reflection. It is owned and managed by the students, who invite educators electronically to review, discuss and provide feedback on their work.
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The Department of Social Policy & Social Work organises a yearly Away Day for freshers. This is normally held outside campus and allows for interaction between freshers and departmental academic staff. It provides an opportunity for staff to impart knowledge and skills which might help students better cope with university life.
This experience helps to enhance freshers’ transitioning to tertiary education and facilitates student-staff relations. The restrictions required by the COVID-19 pandemic have meant that an equivalent event was held online during the academic year 2020/2021.
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The Department of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the Faculty of ICT offers a Gaming stream as part of its undergraduate degree. The modules consist of three main components; theory, practice and application. The lectures focus on the use of AI in digital games. The practicals guide students towards using Unity, the most popular gaming engine worldwide. The application part takes the form of a Game Jam where students have to create a game in 48 hours whilst guided by industry experts. The course covers enough material to allow students to sit for a sought-after industry qualification, the Unity Certification.
Through this combination, students get the best of all worlds: theory, practice, experience and third-party certification. If you'd like to know more, please contact Prof. Alexiei Dingli.
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The use of a conceptual framework embedded in the principles of person-centredness and the Person-centred Practice Framework, guides the structure of curricula in the Department of Mental Health, Faculty of Health Sciences.
Consequently, active student participation in curriculum development is ensured and power sharing enabled, through the setting up of two student Curriculum Evaluation committees that meet twice a year. These committees provide a voice and platform for students to discuss aspects relating to the curriculum content, assessment and learning activities.
This feedback is then followed by an in-depth reflection and evaluation by staff and key stakeholders (including student representatives) to formulate strategies that support students and enhance their learning experiences.
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For the last two years, academic staff in the B.Sc. Computer Engineering and Computing Science courses have been meeting regularly with all their students through a collaborative inter-departmental effort. This has proved a useful exercise in maintaining a regular link with students, to get a general overview of their progress and to give them an opportunity to voice any concerns. Students have welcomed these meetings very positively, particularly during the pandemic, throughout which the meetings continued virtually.
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The Department of Music Studies fosters the independent artistic development of its students and promotes their work throughout the University community. One of its initiatives has been that of encouraging its students to form variable ensembles to perform and record short pieces of their choice, particularly their own compositions.
The Department promotes these recordings as ‘bite-sized concerts’ through Newspoint and the Department's Facebook page, in order to give more visibility to young musicians within the university, and beyond.
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The University of Malta, represented by the Institute of Digital Games through the AI4Media project, and supported by the Department of Artificial Intelligence (Faculty of ICT) is a founding member of the International AI Doctoral Academy (AIDA).
The academy focuses on delivering the next generation of core AI advances and training to serve the media sector. Currently, 56 leading European universities, research centres and industry organisations form AIDA’s founding board.
The AI Doctoral Academy will foster European talent by providing the opportunity to contribute to the development of the European brand of AI, conduct industry-relevant research through intense mobility, and establish career links within the EU.
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The Centre for Literacy strives to improve practice and inform policy through the generation of knowledge by creating a strong research culture and by developing professional practice. It is committed to the promotion of quality research, and its effective communication, especially in areas related to children’s literacy, and to maintaining strong partnerships with schools and the wider educational community.
The Centre continues to be an agent of change on the national, European and international levels. Through strategic partnerships in Malta and abroad, it seeks to influence policy and practice in the field of Literacy Education, and has produced various scientific publications in the field.
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The mission of the Department of Disability Studies (DDS) is to extend knowledge in this field by teaching about disability across Faculties and Departments. Research and community engagement in the area of disability continue being an integral part of the Department’s contribution to society and the field of disability.
The Department held a series of webinars on young persons with disability and relationships in conjunction with the Commission for the Rights of Persons with Disability (CRPD) and Opening Doors (Malta). The webinars explored issues encountered by young persons with disability in forming and retaining friendships, having long-term intimate relationships and being parents.
The ĊaVetta għall-Futur project aimed to promote the skills and abilities of persons with intellectual disability, especially those related to employment, to challenge mistaken assumptions that they lack valued abilities. To date, 10 video CVs have been created that showcase the experiences and achievements of 10 persons with intellectual disability in employment, the arts and sport. The project is led by Senior Lecturer Dr Anne-Marie Callus, and is being implemented in conjunction with the CRPD. The research team also includes Sandra Borg, Communications Manager at CRPD and Isabel Bonello and Cristina Grech, co-researchers with intellectual disability. The project is funded by the University of Malta, the CRPD and the Good Causes Fund.
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The University monitors its performance in terms of its online presence through the independent ranking system Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.
In February 2022, the University of Malta is ranked 886th in the world, placing it in the top 2.85% of 31,097 higher education institutions worldwide.
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The Office of the Registrar strives to innovate on the current available technology to provide a better service to students and staff.
In collaboration with the European University of the Seas and Europass, the Office of the Registrar embarked on a new project to provide European Digital Credentials for Learning to all UM graduands from 2021 onwards. These credentials include a digital version of the scroll that is signed with a unique electronic seal (that is the digital equivalent of an institution’s rubber stamp). This allows potential employers, education and training institutions to easily authenticate, validate and recognise credentials of any size, shape or form.
Following the graduation ceremonies held in November and December 2021, all graduands received their qualifications in digital format in addition to the physical Latin Scroll and Europass Diploma Supplement. This procedure will be adopted by the Office of the Registrar to issue digital credentials to all its future graduands.
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The Department of Gender & Sexualities considers community engagement and activism as one of its core pillars, for the mutual benefit of the department and the community at large. Academia can work with community partners to create change, build the capacity of individuals, groups and organisations, and simultaneously strengthen the academic role through teaching and research.
The department’s areas of community engagement reflect its members’ areas of interest and specialisations, and include media, human rights, social inclusion, gender-based violence, and LGBTIQ+, all considered through an intersectional lens. Collaboration is in place with intergovernmental, state and civil society organisations in these areas, to contribute to research, policy and practice.
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The University of Malta is committed to continuously streamline and enhance its admissions process, as part of its ongoing efforts to widening participation in higher education. In view of this, a number of programmes that used to limit the number of student admissions have recently had their capping removed.
So far this has resulted in a 27% reduction in capped undergraduate programmes and a 19% reduction in capped postgraduate programmes. This exercise is intended to render the admissions process more efficient. There are cases of courses that merit capping in view of a number of reasons, especially practical sessions.
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PSY2650 is an optional 2-ECTS study-unit offered by the Department of Psychology, designed to facilitate student participation in a number of meetings within University structures such as Senate, Council, Faculty Boards and Boards of Studies, as well as in Senate-recognised Student Societies.
Students are encouraged to register for this study-unit, which enables the development of interpersonal, group and communication skills. It also fosters an increased awareness of the impact of student participation within the University’s structures and its response to societal needs. To register for this study-unit students must be student representatives on one of the various boards of the University of Malta or a committee member of one of the student societies recognised by Senate.
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The Faculty of Science had a Periodic Programme Review (PPR) during the academic year 2021/2022. The self-evaluation document, coupled with valuable feedback from students and alumni, academic staff, industry stakeholders and other experts in the field identified assessment as one of the key factors which is ever evolving. Beyond judgement, different methods of assessments will mould not just what, but how students learn.
The feedback and outcomes emanating from the PPR process were followed up by a half-day seminar which was organised by the Faculty of Science on 25 May 2022, entitled Online teaching and assessment: What we have learned from the Pandemic Era. In line with the University's strategic planning process for 2020-2025, this seminar gave an opportunity to all academics to attend talks on how to make assessment more meaningful; on the roles of the PVC, APQRU, QAC and QSU and their relationship to quality online learning, teaching and assessment; on students’ experiences during the pandemic whilst studying at UM, and on Erasmus+ mobility.
Academics could also share their opinions and contribute to shaping future teaching and assessment operations of the Faculty through workshops related to open-book exams, computer-assisted exams using WISEflow, VLE-based assessments, skill-based and competence-based assessment, and oral exams.
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The University of Malta has always been a key contributor to Malta’s industry and economy. Ensuring that programmes remain relevant to the needs of industry, that in turn employs our graduates, is an objective that the Faculty of Economics, Management and Accountancy (FEMA) has worked for over the past decades. Such relevance is ensured through four key approaches:
Examples of strategies to train students in key transferable skills wanted by employers may be found here.
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S-Cubed, the Science Students’ Society, recently conducted its own feedback exercise amongst Faculty of Science students. The students themselves were thus involved in the entire process, from designing the surveys, to disseminating them and ultimately conducting a meaningful analysis. This valuable feedback was consequently incorporated in the Faculty’s recent Periodic Programme Review (PPR) exercise and resulted in a number of positive recommendations, thanks to the involvement of an S-Cubed representative during the stakeholders’ meeting.
Student societies are encouraged to follow this model and take a proactive role in feedback exercises, which can complement the feedback collected at institutional and Faculty level. In this way, the students’ voice will contribute to continuous quality enhancement.
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The Institute for Tourism, Travel & Culture is a partner in an Erasmus Mundus two-year Master of Science in Tourism Development & Culture (TourDC) programme, funded by the EU’s Erasmus+ Programme. It is very strong in international scope whilst having a strong Pan-European base in that the consortium is composed of five universities:
Very positive feedback has been garnered by the students, who highlighted the access to students, teachers and locals from a diverse cultural network, and the full exposure provided to real-time concepts in the tourism industry, while maintaining a perfect balance of both theory and practice.
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The International Institute for Baroque Studies, in collaboration with Artique Productions, performs outreach through the television programme Il-Barokk. According to the Director of the Institute, Professor Denis De Lucca, the aim of these and other future programmes is to supplement the multi-disciplinary teaching and research activities of this operating unit of the University of Malta by disseminating knowledge about the Baroque Age to a wide audience.
Such productions support the ‘National Impact’ theme of the University’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025, by ‘promoting studies and research that are focused on cultural heritage’ as well as ‘instilling awareness and appreciation of Maltese characteristics’.
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The Master of Arts in Comparative Euro-Mediterranean Education Studies offered by the University of Malta’s Euro-Mediterranean Centre for Education Research (EMCER), places an emphasis on developing critical perspectives on education by comparing local policy and practice with international trends. Alumni praised the fact that while knowledge and skills developed during the programme are applicable to a range of educational contexts, they are not limited to specific occupational roles. The programme thus serves to open up horizons, providing students with the opportunity to deepen their understanding of areas of interest.
The programme also puts students in the driving seat: they can choose essay titles that not only relate to the content of each study-unit, but also to the dissertation topic they intend to research. Essays thus serve as building blocks, enhancing motivation and interest. Linkage between taught and research components of the programme are further enhanced thanks to the opportunity to co-design one of the study-units, under the guidance of the programme coordinator and dissertation supervisor, thus encouraging self-directed and meaningful learning.
Such characteristics ‘create dynamic frameworks which provide holistic learning’, as indicated in the main commitments of the ‘Learning and Teaching’ theme of the University’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025.
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One of the measures implemented by the Department of Maltese following its Periodic Programme Review process involved the addition and diversification of assessment methods. This was one of the main suggestions emanating from the students’ feedback, who felt that there was an overreliance on examinations.
The Department took this feedback on board and has now introduced a variety of assessment methods, including orals, presentations, classwork and assignments. As the main stakeholders and beneficiaries of the University’s offerings, students’ participation in feedback exercises is crucial for the continuous enhancement of programmes of study.
The Department of Maltese's efforts are in line with one of the main commitments of the 'Learning & Teaching' theme of the University's Strategic Plan 2020-2025, namely to 'design continuous, formative and summative assessments which are valid, robust and transparent, providing guidelines on best practices in assessment design'. Further information about assessment practices at UM is available online.
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The Faculty of Dental Surgery has been engaging in service-learning in dental education as part of their commitment to enhancing the students’ educational experiences and improving their clinical skills and self-confidence while instilling social responsibility.
This is being achieved through the Mobile Dental Clinic, which is a fully equipped dental clinic on wheels, inaugurated in 2015. This clinic serves as a base for outreach programmes in health promotion and visits take place once a week in all localities across Malta and Gozo.
Faculty academics in collaboration with students provide this community service through a multidisciplinary approach of a dental team which includes dentistry, dental hygiene, dental technology, dental therapy and dental assistance. The service aims to educate the community, provide dental screenings, and offer educational interventions such as dietary counselling and smoking cessation guidance.
Service-learning is embedded in community-based dental education that proved to be beneficial not only for the students’ holistic meaningful learning experience but also for the academics’ professional and research growth. Furthermore, it contributes to creating a more equitable oral health service in our Maltese community, while addressing several commitments of the ‘Learning and Teaching’ and ‘Societal Factors and Impact’ themes of the University’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025.
For further information please watch this video or read Gainza Cirauqui et al., 2022.
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The University monitors its performance in terms of its online presence through the independent ranking system Webometrics Ranking of World Universities.
In February 2023, the University of Malta is ranked 872nd in the world, up from 886th in February 2022, placing it in the top 2.8% of over 31,000 higher education institutions worldwide. In the European ranking, UM is ranked 350th out of 6,036 institutions, placing it in the top 5.8% on the continent.
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The Mediterranean Academy of Diplomatic Studies (MEDAC)'s post-graduate Master in Diplomacy regularly hosts in the classroom ambassadors, policy-makers and personalities related to international relations who are visiting Malta to share with students their experience and insights. These sessions are strictly on a Chatham rule basis and conversations and difficult questions are the order of the day.
The evaluation feedback conducted at the end of each academic year invariably demonstrates that students rate this exposure and informal learning as one of the best take-aways from the course. This addresses the 'Enterprise and Industry Impact' theme of the University's Strategic Plan 2020-2025, namely in terms of the main commitment to 'embed industry knowledge in the learning experience'.
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Simulation has a vital role in the education of nursing students, providing a safe and controlled environment where students can develop and practise clinical skills. The labs at the Department of Nursing are designed to replicate real-life situations, enabling critical thinking and problem-solving abilities.
The simulation labs have been recognised for their excellence, receiving a Standard of Best Practice certification from INACSL, in 2019. This is a prestigious award that recognises excellence in simulation pedagogy, based on rigorous standards that evaluate the quality and safety of simulation labs, as well as the design, implementation and evaluation of simulation education.
This year the Department has invested in state-of-the-art equipment and technology to ensure that the simulation labs continue to provide an effective learning experience for students. Through the use of virtual reality and high-fidelity simulation, students engage in a more immersive and realistic learning environment. Experienced faculty and clinical members work closely with students in the simulation labs to provide individualised instruction and feedback.
The simulation labs are a testament to the Department's commitment to provide high-quality, student-centred nursing education. These efforts ensure that nursing students at the University of Malta engage in learning that prepares them for a successful career.
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The University of Malta's Centre for the Study & Practice of Conflict Resolution offers a dual MA programme in Conflict Resolution and Mediterranean Security in association with the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Conflict Resolution at George Mason University (GMU) in the USA. The programme has been running successfully for over a decade. Students receive two Masters awards upon completion of their studies, which span over a full calendar year, one from UM and another from GMU. This enables graduates of the programme to pursue further studies in the US as well as in the EU.
Study-units are delivered intensively over a two-week period. Half of the taught component is delivered by visiting academics from the Carter School and the other half is delivered by UM academics, so students are exposed to a rich multidisciplinary international curriculum that uses various modes of learning and teaching. This dual programme is accredited and reviewed regularly by both institutions.
Aside from the Masters programme, academics affiliated with the Centre are actively engaged in ongoing research projects that aim to promote a peace agenda in various conflict zones around the world. Due to the richness and diversity of scholarship that is cultivated at the Centre, the programme attracts a strong international audience who choose UM for postgraduate study.
This programme addresses the 'International Outlook' strategic theme of the University’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025.
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The Kollezzjoni Programmi tal-Festa (KPF) housed within the Junior College Library is a specialised collection made up of the annual publications by parishes, band clubs and other organisations for the various feasts of each locality.
Initiated in 2019, the aim of the collection is to gather and organise the vast amount of Melitensia content available specifically related to local history and heritage. This collection is not unique in scope, but in its accessibility. Apart from the print collection being open to the public for research, various articles are being scanned and uploaded in Open Access on OAR@UM. This allows for further increase in dissemination and accessibility.
All 7000 publications were either donated by local organisations or by the general public. This was possible thanks to the continuous outreach, mainly through the collection’s Facebook group “Kollezzjoni Programmi tal-Festa''. This group is used as a platform by Junior College Librarians to share material from this collection, whilst at the same time encouraging group members to share related material.
The print collection is open to researchers and the general public during opening hours and queries can be sent via email on juniorcollege.lib@um.edu.mt.
This collection embraces the Strategic Theme 5: National Impact of the University’s Strategic Plan 2020-2025. This collection is helping to "promote research on physical and intangible cultural heritage" and "instill appreciation of Maltese characteristics".
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