Yes. A training provider based outside Malta can offer its programmes in Malta without its own MFHEA licence by partnering with our institute there. The institute holds the licence and MFHEA accredits your programme under it. The institute issues the award and hosts the part of the teaching that has to happen in Malta. Apollo maps your course to the Malta Qualifications Framework, prepares the submission and helps you staff and run it. Partnerships open at MQF Levels 1 to 4 first. Levels 5 to 7 follow once MFHEA approves the institute's higher education category.
Why partner instead of building your own institution
Running your own institution in Malta takes a lot before the first learner arrives. You need a Maltese company, a provider licence from MFHEA and then a separate accreditation for every programme. Since 24 February 2026 the rules have tightened further. MFHEA no longer accepts licence applications from fully online institutions. A provider now needs dedicated premises in Malta, owned or leased, and its technical and administrative staff have to work from Malta (Communication MFHEA 04/2026).
For a provider with one or two programmes, that is a year or more of fixed cost and paperwork with nothing to sell yet. Partnering skips most of it. Our institute already has the premises, the governance and the internal quality system MFHEA expects of a licensed provider. You bring the programme and the learners you can reach. We bring the Maltese base and the work needed to get your programme accredited and running. Your programme still goes through MFHEA's full review, and what you save is the cost of building an institution around it.
What we support you with
| Area | What it covers |
|---|---|
| The course | Learning outcomes mapped to the MQF level descriptors, a credit value set in ECTS (25 hours of learner effort per credit, so about 1,500 hours for 60 credits) and assessment checked against the level. |
| Staff | A programme lead and lecturers whose qualifications and experience fit the level. We review your tutors' CVs and contract lecturers from our own pool where there are gaps. |
| Premises | Teaching sessions in Malta run at the institute's premises. No lease and no teaching venue of your own. |
| Quality assurance | Your programme follows the institute's internal quality procedures: second marking, module reviews, learner feedback, and complaints and appeals. |
| Administration and platform | Admissions, attendance, results and certificate records kept by the institute for MFHEA. The online part runs on our learning platform, or on yours if it meets the same requirements. |
MQF levels: what opens first
The Malta Qualifications Framework has eight levels. Further education covers Levels 1 to 4 and higher education starts at Level 5. MFHEA licenses providers by category, and the category decides which levels a provider may offer.
| MQF level | Typical qualifications | For partners |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Introductory and foundation awards and certificates | Open first, under the institute's further education licence |
| 4 | Advanced vocational awards and certificates | Open first, under the institute's further education licence |
| 5 | Undergraduate certificates (at least 30 ECTS), diplomas (60) and higher diplomas (90) | Next stage, once MFHEA approves the higher education category |
| 6 | Bachelor's degrees (at least 180 ECTS) | Next stage |
| 7 | Postgraduate certificates (at least 30 ECTS), postgraduate diplomas (60) and Master's degrees (90) | Next stage |
| 8 | Doctorates | Not offered |
Minimum ECTS from MFHEA's Malta Qualifications Framework guidance, checked 5 October 2026. A programme with fewer credits than the minimum for its title is classed as an award.
We tell you at the scoping stage which band your programme falls into. We do not submit a Level 5, 6 or 7 programme until the institute's licence covers that level. If your plans sit at those levels, you can still do the alignment work now, so the programme is ready to file as soon as the category is approved.
How it works, step by step
Scoping review
A paid review of your programme, its level, credit, assessment and staffing, with a fixed quote and timeline at the end.
Terms in writing
Before anything goes to MFHEA, we agree with you who owns the course content, how fees are shared, how each brand is used, and what happens if either side leaves.
Alignment
Outcomes, credit, assessment and reading lists are brought into line with the MQF level and MFHEA's programme standards.
Submission and review
We prepare the accreditation file for the institute to submit and handle MFHEA's questions until a decision.
Delivery
After approval, learners study online and attend their sessions at the institute in Malta.
Annual quality cycle
Every year the results and learner feedback are reviewed, rule changes are checked, and the records are brought up to date for audit.
Partnering compared with your own Maltese institution
| Partner with our institute | Your own institution in Malta | |
|---|---|---|
| Who holds the MFHEA licence | The institute | Your Maltese company |
| Who issues the award | The institute, as the licensed provider | You |
| Company and premises in Malta | Not needed | Needed: company, leased premises, compliant teaching rooms |
| Staff based in Malta | Provided through the institute | You employ them |
| Set-up cost | Programme accreditation and alignment only | Company, premises, licence application, then each programme |
| Time to first intake | Shorter: no licence application of your own | Longer: licence first, then each programme |
| Control of the award and brand | Shared, set out in the agreement | Fully yours |
| Best for | Testing demand, or one to a few programmes | A long-term base in the EU with many programmes |
What partnering gives you access to: Malta and the EU
| Malta at a glance | |
|---|---|
| EU member state since | 2004 |
| Official languages | Maltese and English |
| MQF referenced to the EQF | 2009, level for level (MQF 1 to 8 = EQF 1 to 8) |
| Credit system | ECTS, 25 hours of learner effort per credit |
| Where accredited programmes are listed | The Malta Qualifications Database, kept by MFHEA |
| Delivery rule for licensed providers | Blended: at most 60% online, at least 40% in person (MFHEA 04/2026) |
Put those facts together and an accredited programme ends up with an MQF level, an EQF level and an ECTS credit count attached to it, which a recruiter in Lisbon or a registrar in Vienna can make sense of without ever having heard of MFHEA. If your course is taught in English, it goes in as it is. Your learners might live in Malta and come in for the classes, or live in Poland or Kenya and fly in for the classroom weeks. The level helps them be understood. Whether a country lets them practise a regulated profession or join a further degree is decided there, country by country, and we talk that through with you at the start.
Who it suits
The providers who ask us about this are a mixed group. Some are colleges and academies outside Malta with a course they have taught for years and now want rated on the MQF. Many are UK providers who lost their EU reference point after Brexit. We also hear from professional bodies and corporate academies, and from centres already approved by an awarding body that would like a Malta route running next to that approval.
An example
Here is how it could look for a provider, as an illustration rather than a real client. A training company in Glasgow sells a six-month certificate in site safety supervision to construction firms. A few of those firms also build in Malta and want the same certificate on an EU framework for their staff there. At scoping we place the certificate at MQF Level 4 with 30 credits. Its outcomes fit Level 4 but its final test is a multiple-choice paper, which does not show the judgement Level 4 asks for, so we replace it with a case report on a hazard the learner has dealt with at work. The course becomes blended, with two workshop weekends in Malta, and the institute files it with MFHEA, paying a fee of 1,840 euro for a programme that size and level. The Glasgow firm never registers anything in Malta.
- The programme handbook, with learning outcomes and hours
- Assessment briefs and marking criteria
- CVs of the people who teach it
- Expected learner numbers, and where your learners are
- Any accreditation or awarding body approval the programme already holds
- Your preferred start date and the size of the first intake
What it costs
A partnership has three costs, shown as separate lines on our quote. MFHEA charges the accreditation fee per credit, on a published scale that rises with the level. For a 30-credit programme at Level 4 that is 1,600 euro, and MFHEA adds 15 per cent when the programme is blended, which brings it to 1,840 euro. The fee is paid in advance and MFHEA does not refund it. Our fee for alignment, the submission and the yearly quality review is quoted once the scoping review is done. The institute's partnership fee, for premises, platform and its quality system, is agreed programme by programme, and it usually works out cheaper per course if you bring two or three at once.
MFHEA fee figures from MFHEA's Fee Structure for Programme Accreditation, effective 1 September 2023, checked 5 October 2026. See MFHEA programme accreditation fees by level.
What we cannot promise
A reviewer at MFHEA might ask for a new assessment, say, and the decision waits until you have one. Apollo prepares the file and answers the review questions with the institute. Apollo does not award qualifications and is not a regulator or an awarding organisation; your learners receive their certificates from the institute. Until MFHEA approves the programme, it is not advertised to learners as accredited, because MFHEA has rules on that. A nurse, an accountant or an engineer still needs their profession's own approval in each country, whatever level the qualification carries.
Common questions
Can I offer my courses in Malta without my own MFHEA licence?
Yes, by working through a licensed partner. MFHEA accredits your programme under our institute's licence and the institute awards it, so you need no Maltese company, premises or licence.
Which MQF levels can a partnership cover?
Levels 1 to 4 come first, under the institute's further education licence. Levels 5 to 7, the undergraduate and Master's range, come once MFHEA approves the institute's higher education category. We do not offer Level 8.
Can the programme be taught fully online?
Plan on blended. Since February 2026 MFHEA wants licensed providers to have a real base in Malta, and a blended programme can be at most 60% online, with 40% or more taught in person.
Who issues the certificate?
The institute, because it holds the licence. How your own name and logo appear next to it is settled in writing before submission, inside MFHEA's rules.
Who provides the lecturers?
Either of us. We check your tutors against what MFHEA expects at that level, and if you are short, we hire.
Is the qualification recognised across the EU?
Its level is readable anywhere in the EU, thanks to EQF referencing and ECTS credit. A regulated job, or a place on a further course, is a separate decision for each country.
How long will it take?
Ask us after scoping, when we know how far the course is from its MQF level and how full MFHEA's diary is.
Could we set up our own Maltese institution later?
You could, and a few providers plan it that way from day one, so our agreement leaves the door open.
FreeCourse diagnostic
Send us one course. We'll tell you what it needs, free.
Share one course or programme you already run, or the slides and notes behind it. After a short first call, we review it at no charge and send you a written note on what it needs and which package fits, within a few working days.
- One course or programme, reviewed by a named person
- A written note on what it needs
- The package that fits, so you know where to start
- No charge and no obligation
Get in touch
Tell us about the programme you want to bring to Malta.
Send a short note on what you are trying to get recognised, who it is for and any deadline. We will come back with the route, the standards that apply and what the work involves.
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Sources
- MFHEA, Communication 04/2026 on fully online provision (24 February 2026)
- MFHEA, licence categories and MQF levels
- MFHEA, Provider licences
- Cedefop, Malta: European inventory of NQFs 2024
- MFHEA, Fee Structure for Programme Accreditation (effective 1 September 2023)
- European Qualifications Framework (EQF)