Dr Jacqueline Vanhear joined UM in December 2021 as Senior Executive, Quality Support Unit. Previously, she was Director – Quality Assurance Department (QAD) within the Directorate for Quality and Standards in Education (DQSE) in the Ministry for Education in Malta for seven years, leading a dynamic team with the aim of evaluating and promoting the quality of learners' holistic education provision in Maltese pre-compulsory and compulsory age educational institutions. Within its regulatory role, the DQSE is also responsible to issue and renew operational licences for educational institutions (0-16 years) and monitors compliance to national legislation and standards. Furthermore, the DQSE accredits learning and assessment programmes up to MQF Level 3 of academic, applied, vocational and non-formal nature.
During her tenure, Jacqueline played an instrumental role in the launching of the National Policy for Early Childhood Education and Care (0-7 years) for Malta and Gozo (2021) and the National Standards for Early Childhood Education and Care Services (0-3 years) (2021). She was invited by the Commonwealth secretariat to work alongside other policy experts to contribute to the Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) Toolkit for Commonwealth countries, published in November 2022.
Jacqueline has spent almost 30 years in the educational sector, teaching in the early years, secondary and tertiary sectors and coaching educators, with a special focus on learning how to learn. All her action research focuses on how students learn and explored learning and teaching models which facilitate meaningful learning while addressing learner variability in higher education. Over the years Jacqueline has given presentations as well as published locally and internationally about the learning process in higher education.
This background knowledge and experience was value added to her leadership role in quality assurance. Jacqueline expanded her knowledge about educational quality and evaluation through regular continuous professional development both locally and abroad. Over the past decade she contributed and led to the revamp of the national quality assurance framework for the general educational sector, was an active contributor to the Standing International Conference of Inspectorates (SICI) and designed courses about educational quality assurance for prospective educational leaders.
