René Mifsud is a resident academic within the Department of Occupational Therapy at the Faculty of Health Sciences. He obtained a PhD from Cardiff University and an M.Sc from Exeter University. René has held a post in the sector of occupational therapy education in Malta since the early 1990s. In 1995 he was appointed as coordinator of the Division of Occupational Therapy within the Institute of Health Care, retaining this position up to 2010. Throughout the late 1990s he was responsible for coordinating and spearheading the inception of the undergraduate occupational therapy programme in Malta. Heading a dynamic group of local academics, he achieved the fundamental milestone of introducing the Bachelor degree in Occupational Therapy in 1999. In the 2010 he played a key role in the transition of the Division of Occupational Therapy into a Faculty Department as part of the nascent Faculty of Health Sciences. René subsequently occupied the position of Head of Department up to 2018. In the same year he steered the World Federation of Occupational Therapy's reaccreditation of the undergraduate programme offered by the University of Malta. Previous to his career in tertiary education, he had worked in all the major hospital-based clinical services. The last post he held in health was managing an occupational therapy service for older adults in residential care. He also held the post of President of the Malta Association of Occupational Therapy in 1995 and 1996.
René Mifsud's professional interests include adults living with complex neurological disability, older adult independent community living, clinical reasoning and clinical judgement in acute practice settings. His research and educational interests span professional identity, professional knowledge and its operationalisation, and use of professional discourse in practice.
René takes pride in supporting students to grapple with the challenges of conceptual knowledge and the of development of their professional personas. He also derives much satisfaction in fostering shared insights with fellow academic colleagues as they advance the knowledge of their profession, as well as the mandate of their teaching.