Ascencia Malta is a higher education institution offering training courses at levels 5, 6 to 7, which is due to open shortly in Malta. Ms Marthese Giordmaina will ensure the direction of the school.
The school is founded around three values that constitute its identity:
International Openness: Programs are designed to welcome international students and facilitate their mobility.
Educational excellence: Ascencia Malta’s objective is to be recognised in its speciality field and offers its students a guarantee of inclusion in the global employment markets. The teaching team consists of an academic faculty and the best professional speakers.
Individualised support towards employment: Each training corresponds to a personal ambition; all learners benefit from individualised support. The success of all – before, during and after training – is at the heart of our work. Our teams accompany each student in the success of his project. Professional integration, promoted by periods in the company, is our top priority.
The quality of its training and the satisfaction of its staff and students is a priority for Ascencia Malta. Therefore, in organising the opening of its new campus, Ascencia Malta has built a quality policy to meet the 11 standards of the MFHEA.
The school comprises three main departments, the management represented by the Campus Manager, the sales department, and the pedagogical department.
According to their scope of action, these three departments play a role in the school’s quality system.
The Campus Manager is responsible for compliance with quality standards by all the school’s stakeholders. In addition, the Campus Manager manages the school’s quality system and controls the proper implementation of the recommended tools for monitoring daily actions.
The pedagogical service interfaces the school, students, and teachers. Its role is to follow students throughout their training path. It plans the year of students and teachers. It is also the service that collects the complaints of the various parties and provides an answer. The pedagogical service transmits to students and teachers the various satisfaction surveys throughout the training and ensures to obtain as many answers as possible.
The sales department is primarily the guarantor of the smooth running of the student admission process in the school. But they are also the students’ career advisors; they help and accompany the students in their search for an internship and guarantee the smooth running of this period. In addition, they are the interlocutors connecting the school, companies and students. They organise at least one visit to a company during the internship period and intervene if necessary.
Students are stakeholders in the quality system as beneficiaries of training actions. They are the main players in satisfaction surveys since we await their answers to consider their possible complaints to implement our continuous improvement approach.
Teachers’ role is to transmit their knowledge to learners and are guarantors of the quality of their courses. In addition, they provide the school’s pedagogical service with all the pedagogical documents and materials needed to control the intervention quality.
Recruitment is the responsibility of the heads of departments according to the hierarchical position of the profiles sought.
The school’s campus manager is recruited directly by Dr Olivier de Lagarde. Her role is to recruit all other employees to join the Ascencia Malta team.
The Academic Director will be responsible for recruiting the educational coordinators and the educational assistant/officer. The academic Director’s particularity is that they are also responsible for recruiting the teaching team in close collaboration with the campus manager.
The heads of the department report recruitment need to the campus manager, who validates or not the request and the allocated budget.
When the need is validated, the Recruitment Process is launched. Recruitment may be managed directly by the head of the department concerned or by a recruitment agency.
To guarantee all our stakeholders the quality of our training, we are committed to:
Teaching staff will be recruited following the issuance of the provisional license. A recruitment company (Broadwing Limited C 84543) has already been appointed to recruit Malta residents as teachers. All teachers’ CVs will be provided to the MFHEA following the recruitment process.
To meet our commitments, Ascencia Malta has put in place procedures and tools allowing it to:
The standards for internal quality assurance are:
Ascencia Malta is committed to making the quality policy public.
As per existing Malta Business Registry requirements, the institution, as a company, is obliged to file audited accounts yearly. The yearly financials and tax compliance services are being taken care of by Premium Accounting Ltd. (C 76116), whilst Premium Audit Ltd. (C 48129) is handling the audit aspect of the institution. The procedures aligned with Malta Company Law and International Accounting Standards (IFRS). The director of Ascencia Malta, Dr Olivier Pierre De Lagarde, oversees the company’s financial side.
The shareholder currently holding half of the shares of Ascencia Malta is College De Paris SAS, with registration number 815229901. The professionals behind Ascencia Malta are the same professionals behind other successful educational institutions worldwide. As a result, everyone involved in setting up this institution, including the campus manager of Ascencia Malta, has ample experience within the field, inevitably providing a certain level of financial security to the institution being set up.
Ms Marthese GIORDMAINA runs Ascencia Malta and is the school’s Campus Manager. The role of the campus manager is to manage the school and teams. In addition, she is the guarantor of compliance with the school’s internal rules by the various stakeholders.
Other key staff members are the Public Relations Officer, Mr Zoran Janus, who takes care of anything related to student visas and public relations. An Academic Director, Claire-Suzanne BORG, is responsible for the higher education department. Also, a Director of studies who will manage the English Language department.
The school is run by a professional with a Level 7 degree in business management or higher education. A minimum professional experience of 5 years in a similar position was considered for the position of Campus Manager.
The school’s administrative team will be composed of a junior profile without needing a specific qualification. Members must demonstrate organisation.
The pedagogical team will consist of professionals who have obtained a minimum level 5/6 diploma in the field of training or management assistantship. These operational teams are composed of professionals who accompany the students throughout their training. Educational coordinators must show a good sense of relational relationships. They would be responsible for drawing up the timetables and maintaining the relationship between the teachers and the school and between the students and the school.
The sales team will also not need to have a specific level of qualification but a strong interest in the field of training and knowledge of the courses offered by the school.
Regarding the teaching staff, teachers must have an MQF level qualification above the course taught. For example, teachers of level 6 programs must have obtained a level 7 qualification. Teachers of level 7 programs must have obtained a level 8 qualification. Professional experience in the field taught is also considered in the recruitment of teachers.
All Ascencia Malta training programs are recognised and meet the qualification requirements of the MQF; the MFHEA accredits them.
The courses are weighted in ECTS, and each course has defined general objectives, learning outcomes, and specific skills the student must acquire.
Thus, the learner must be an active player in his training and learning; the training courses provide a time of autonomy and an internship in the company to apply his knowledge.
Ascencia Malta’s academic director is responsible for deploying training courses to students. She must also ensure that stakeholders put in place appropriate teaching methods.
The training programs are regularly adapted to correspond to the evolution of the trades. To do this, the institution organises a development council once a year to invite professors, students and professionals of the trades targeted at the end of the training.
The role of the development council is to improve the training and its dispensation mechanism continuously’s:
Its actions are:
School representatives report on the results of student and stakeholder satisfaction surveys.
The members of the development board have a common goal:
1 – To ensure the quality of its training and the success of its students, Ascencia Malta implements various pedagogical methods combining moments of peer grouping within the school, distance learning via the e-Ascencia platform, and periods of autonomy.
The e-Ascencia platform is a pedagogical resource available to students.
We aim to offer our students educational innovations; our training programs are thus designed around theoretical courses and practice through situations, real cases of companies, and collaborative courses.
Our evaluation methods vary to put them throughout the training in different situations. For example, the evaluation can take the form of a case study in which the student must analyse the situation and provide answers using his knowledge and critical judgment, an oral presentation, a gro work, and activation participation in a creative challenge.
Diversifying teaching methods and evaluations allows students to perform to their strengths and prepare for the job market.
At the beginning of every course offered by the institute, students will be informed of the assessment procedures and the conditions for validating their diploma, bachelor’s and master’s courses. In addition, this information will be included in the welcome booklet that will be provided to each student upon enrolment.
The feedback to be given to students is treated with utmost importance. For continuous testing and as part of the module assessment, the students will receive comments from their teachers on their papers. In the case of case studies, candidates have the option of requesting access to the assessment grid that is completed by the marker.
2 – Ascencia Malta is committed to academic integrity on the part of both its professors and students. To do this, Ascencia Malta acts against exam fraud through various actions.
In particular, the following facts are considered fraud during an evaluation test:
The supervisor/jury oversees notifying the academic director, who must immediately stop any fraud or attempted fraud that has been detected: the candidate responsible for the fraud will be excluded from the examination room and sanctioned, which may lead to the elimination of the title.
Depending on the report of the academic director, only the Deliberation Commission will be able to exclude the candidate partially or completely from the certification process and decide whether to access the catch-up tests based on the seriousness of the fraud.
The internet and course materials can be made possible for exams. However, fraud and plagiarism remain strictly prohibited. The institution also has a plagiarism control platform for professional matters. The platform that will be used is Turnitin. This will be used in the control of writings and will make a plagiarism report on the internet and among candidates. The correctors/establishment will therefore be able to sanction a zero, all or part of a copy for fraud.
All markers of examination papers will be given the same evaluation grid for marking the case studies. However, should a student wish to complain about the mark obtained, a second marking by a new marker would be offered.
Students must attend all assessments. In the case of force majeure and with proof of real and serious cause, the student may be offered a make-up exam to compensate for the absence.
If the student fails less than 50% of the exams, the student may also be entitled to a make-up examination session. The make-up examination paper must be the same as the initial examination. The mark obtained cancels and replaces the original mark even in the case of a higher failure.
The teachers mark continuous assessment copies and return them to the students to assess their learning results during the course. In addition, the case study papers are marked according to an assessment grid constructed by the teachers responsible for producing the cases. The copies of continuous assessments and evaluation grids are electronic and archived for five years or longer as required under relevant prescriptive periods on the schools’ servers.
When fraud or incident arises, the institution is to decide on the sanction to be applied to the candidate. Depending on the severity of the fault, it may be decided:
The institution’s decision is sovereign and cannot be appealed.
Academic fraud is most likely to arise during examination sessions organised by Ascencia Malta. These would be proctored by members of the teaching staff, lecturers and persons authorised to proctor.
At the beginning of the examination session, the identity of the candidates is checked. To do so, they must present a valid identity document and their invitation to the examination session by the pedagogical services. This checkpoint allows us to ensure that the correct candidate is present at the examination session.
The room is monitored during the examination session to limit the risk of exchanges between candidates. If candidates are seen to be to each other, they will be asked to leave the room and will be given a mark of 0 with no opportunity to retake the exam.
Candidates write on computers, and when the papers are marked, they run through plagiarism-checking. This software checks for plagiarism from the internet and between papers.
The sanction will be communicated to the candidate in writing and recommended (depending on the seriousness of the fault). It may also be communicated to his company, depending on the size of the sanction.
The certifier provides three three-cumulative remedies for candidates in a situation of partial validation or adjournment.
The certifier clarifies that an appeal is not a claim or a remark. Instead, it is expressly a request for verification or clarification due to the deliberation or reassessment of the final decision.
The Board has all the elements to make a fair and objective decision.
The recount of points is possible for the written end-of-course assessment (case studies) within the limit of an application for an uncredited EU:
NB: The point recount is done by the academic director or assistant. They will have to provide proof to the test candidate by scanning the exam copy, revealing the points awarded by the corrector.
The right to copy consultation is possible for the written end-of-course assessment (case studies) – within the limit of an uncredited EU – or for the professional defence assessment grid (one or the other):
The documents consulted cannot leave the centre or be reprinted/photographed. The candidate must make themself available for the appointment set within a reasonable 10-day notice period.
The commission of deliberation can be referred to as the following framework:
To enrol on one of our courses within Ascencia Malta, the candidate must meet the requirements defined.
The prerequisites for accessing a Training Course at Ascencia Malta are listed on the school’s website.
Generally, to access one of our courses, the candidate must have obtained a qualification of an MQF level below the MQF level of the course in which he wishes to enrol.
Should a student wishing to further their studies within the field wish to apply for another higher-level course within our institution, the diploma obtained at the lower level must be consistent with the field of training to which the candidate is applying.
For Bachelor courses (Level 6), the candidate must have obtained a level 4 diploma to complete the three years of training. A parallel admission in the final year is possible with a Level 5 diploma.
For Master’s (Level 7) courses, the candidate must have obtained a Level 6 diploma to access the courses.
Procedure for the admission of candidates:
Once the students have completed their full training and all the evaluations, a certification jury is organised by Ascencia Malta. The role of this jury is to confirm or not a student’s graduation.
If the student has met all the conditions of success, he is a graduate. He will then be given a strictly personal parchment stipulating the speciality followed and obtained. In addition, it will also be given certificates of follow-up training, especially for optional courses that do not fall within the assessment framework of the diploma assessment.
To teach Ascencia Malta’s programs, teachers must have an MQF level qualification above the course taught. Teachers of level 6 programs must have obtained a level 7 qualification. Teachers of level 7 programs must have obtained a level 8 qualification. Professional experience in the field taught is also considered in the recruitment of teachers.
In addition, Ascencia Malta encourages teachers to inform themselves regularly of pedagogical innovations to update their learning methods.
Ascencia Malta expects its teachers to continuously improve their knowledge and skills in the fields they teach. To support its trainers in this process, Ascencia Malta is committed to regularly offering them continuing vocational training opportunities.
Academic staff can also use the Cyberlibris online library, which gives them access to many journals and books.
Teachers have the obligation at the beginning of their collaboration with Ascencia Malta to sign the trainers’ charter through which they undertake to respect a regulatory framework throughout their pedagogical mission.
Research at Ascencia is at the heart of our missions. It is our vocation to link the stakes of today’s society and the accompaniment of the rise in competencies of our students, who will be tomorrow’s future professionals.
Our research policy focuses on two main areas: Value Chain Performance and Human Resources Management.
In partnership with the socio-economic world, our teacher-researchers, invested in this collective project, have already initiated work on “Blockchain Technology & Value Chain Performance”, “Blockchain & Education”, or “Understanding and acting in a changing society”. An international synergy at the project level also allows for the valorisation of research.
The success of our students is at the heart of our priorities, which is why we follow up regularly. Ascencia Malta encourages all its staff and teachers to consider the diversity of its students. Students can also email their teachers for help with courses. To this end, teachers are supported in proposing different learning methodologies. For those students who need it, we can propose to them to follow private lessons in addition to the hours already planned in training.
Throughout their schooling, students have access to a Cyberlibris online library. This library allows them to have unlimited access to a significant number of resources. In addition, students can complete the teachings given by their teachers and research to produce their files.
All stakeholders also have access to this online library to help them document their courses and interventions with students.
Students will also have access to the e-Ascencia training platform that offers access to online materials and mediums that can aid students in their initial training as additional learning resources. However, these would not be materials that are part of the training program on a compulsory basis since all lectures will take place in person.
The school provides students and all staff with Wi-Fi internet access. In addition, open-access computers are available for students who need them.
The resources available to students and stakeholders are decided by the members of the school management, who consider the consistency with the training provided, the needs of students and teaching staff, and the school budget.
Ascencia Malta’s IT security team is responsible for proper functioning of the school’s IT devices. They are also responsible for the accessibility and proper functioning of the e-Ascencia platform.
The support service for the Cyberlibris online library is accessible via the platform but not internal to the school.
Ascencia Malta collects students’ data for admission and registration in the institution and archives it in its CRM. In this database, there is one profile per student.
Ascencia Malta considers all students’ participation, as the target for survey participation is 100%.
Vulnerable groups are given special attention and specific personal support, both in their learning and the daily life of their training. Therefore, their participation in the surveys indicates their involvement in school life.
The data is collected via the registration form that students fill out online on the website of Ascencia Malta. Once the students have completed the form, the data are directly integrated into the Ascencia Malta database.
We collect the following data:
Students can access their profiles via an extranet and edit and correct incorrect information anytime.
Once enrolled in a training path, other information about students is collected either with the follow-up of students on the database (such as attendance and punctuality) or by online survey forms sent to students.
The information collected is:
Throughout the course, the academic manager of the course follows the attendance and punctuality of the students. To do this, students must sign an attendance sheet for each course. This follow-up of each student allows us to prevent dropouts and implement corrective actions. We can then offer students personalised support according to their needs and situation.
A satisfaction survey is sent to students (1 per year of study) to assess the quality of provided lessons. And to make the necessary adjustments and developments in line with the needs of the students. These investigations are led by Ascencia Malta’s quality management, which will deploy an action plan on the results achieved.
Ascencia Malta’s quality management monitors graduation rates at the end of each graduate training course. This allows us to monitor the quality of the teachings taught. The website communicates this success rate to our candidates and future students.
In addition, the quality management of Ascencia Malta leads the investigations of professional integration. In this way, Ascencia Malta is constantly monitoring the adequacy of its programmes to the expectations of the job market. Students carry out these surveys six months after graduation and once a year for five years. These surveys also allow us to adjust our support actions in employment for our students.
All data collected are integrated into the Ascencia Malta database. All archives of student information are electronic. Several server backups are performed daily to ensure data access for at least 40 years in Malta. All electronic tools used by Ascencia Malta are conformed to the GDPR.
All information about the formations provided by Ascencia Malta: The selection criteria, the main objectives, the learning results, the MQF level, the total number of hours of learning, and the number of ECTS will be available on our website.
The website will be updated regularly by Ascencia Malta’s Public Relations manager.
If the school’s management modifies any information, it may be put online instantly to ensure that students fully understand the courses offered and the school’s life.
Information on training courses, including teaching methodologies, evaluation procedures and suggested readings, will be included in the descriptions of the modules that one can find in the welcome booklets[1] provided to students as soon as they register at Ascencia Malta.
The Malta Qualifications Framework accredits all Ascencia Malta programs.
Identification of changing needs of students and society:
A. Satisfaction survey conducted each year with our students (June)
At the end of each year, a trainee satisfaction survey is launched and administered by the Academic Department.
Imperative: Provide upstream to the Quality Department the list of modules and trainers for each training section for the creation of questionnaires on REX.
Main points of this survey:
Every year, the Quality Department provides a summary in EXCEL format of the results to the permanent team and the General Management of the various surveys, together with recommendations to be followed (action plan: an individual interview with trainers who do not sufficiently meet expectations, non-renewal of service contracts, an adaptation of module content, etc.).
Within the same time frame, this summary must be distributed by e-mail by the site director to the various stakeholders: trainees, tutors, trainers, permanent team and General Management to improve practices and the notion of transparency in our communications.
The mission of this board is to control the organisation and functioning of Ascencia BS and, more particularly, to:
Identification of changing needs of students and society:
B. Professional insertion survey
Between January and March, a professional insertion survey is launched and administered by the Quality Department to the previous year’s graduates.
In April, the Quality Department summarises the results for each site.
In the same period, this summary must be distributed by e-mail:
Verification that goals and objectives are being met:
C. Concordance between the competency framework and the pedagogical framework
All of our certifications are based on skill sets. The pedagogical programs are built according to these standards to ensure that the content seen in class meets the expectations regarding skills acquisition.
D. Syllabi
At the beginning of the year, all instructors must provide each course’s pedagogical department with a syllabus.
Upon receipt, the pedagogical department ensures that all syllabi comply with the competency framework and the training program.
Steps for applying improvements
A. Handling complaints from students, teachers and tutors
If a complaint is related to the pedagogy or the work-study program, the Pedagogical Department and the Corporate Relations Department complete the table provided throughout the year.
In this table, the following information must be provided
Every three months, the site director must review the situation with the educational and corporate relations departments to ensure that each complaint is properly handled. They should also mention the most contentious cases in the monthly dashboard to inform the General Management.
B. Considering the results of satisfaction surveys
Following the results of the satisfaction surveys, an action plan for continuous improvement is set up by the school’s Director to bring concrete answers to the dissatisfactions of the students and the trainers.
The quality department ensures that this plan is implemented and that promises are kept.
Steps for applying improvements
C. Consideration of the recommendations of the development council
We follow the recommendations of the board to update the content of our training and thus meet the current needs of companies. In addition, we must guarantee the employability of our students.
We also carry out an opportunity study in addition to the advice.
Through this study, the objective is to answer the following question: What is the market’s (or the professional sector’s) need in terms of skills that our skills repository and our training program meet?
Communication of the revision/update plan
D. Student delegates ‘meeting and School Council
Delegate meetings are scheduled by section once a semester to take stock of the group’s progress, particularly in pedagogy. Class representatives and their substitutes are elected by their fellow students at the beginning of the year. This moment of exchange makes it possible to highlight and adopt an individualised process for students with difficulties. The delegates are the permanent and structural link between the students and the educational services.
The School Council comprises the Ascencia Business School Director, the pedagogical director, permanent trainers and students’ representatives. This council allows us to exchange with the students on different elements related to life within the school and pedagogy and take stock of the possible difficulties encountered to bring concrete and quick answers
E. Teachers ‘meeting
Quarterly meetings are organised with the trainers/teachers and the meeting at the beginning of the school year and the end-of-year assessment.
These exchanges allow for the dissemination of the main information, notably related to the pedagogy and organisation of the school.
Process for updating/revising programs
Development council / strategic watch and observation of professions
The process of updating our competency frameworks and training programs is done through:
Our development council presented in part 1
The strategic and competitive watch is carried out jointly by the quality department, the educational department, and the general management.
The quality department monitors the evolution of professions, skills and trends in the job market.
Frequency of review
We carry out an update every year because our training portfolio is built on the following principle: respond to the demand of the job market by ensuring that the content of our training courses is consistent with the expectations and current problems of companies. In addition, one of the main objectives of our training programs is to enable our graduates to quickly enter the job market by acquiring key skills.
At the end of their Baccalaureate +3, our graduates can immediately move into operational positions in the main business areas: organisational management, business development and human resources.
Our level 7 courses allow students to deepen their knowledge and acquire additional skills aimed at professional integration in positions of greater responsibility, more focused on management and administration.
Responsible for the review of these programs
The Pedagogical Department is the guarantor of collaboration with the Quality Department.
Consideration of students and staff in action plans based on the results of monitoring and review
We involve the delegates of each section in the development councils in regular exchanges throughout the training between them, their pedagogical managers, and the school councils.
We also carry out annual satisfaction surveys, which give rise to detailed analysis and recommendations concerning the teaching staff, course content, and the site’s life.
The permanent professors visit companies as part of the various assessments during our students’ internships. These exchanges contribute to the monitoring of information essential to updating the content of our training courses about the expectations and current problems of companies.
The usefulness of this consideration
Student participation in the school’s various bodies and their feedback on satisfaction surveys are essential to our continuous improvement process.
The sharing of experience by professors and the monitoring carried out during their exchanges with companies are also necessary to maintain our promise of employability.
The entity shall undergo an external quality assurance audit by, or with the approval of, the MFHEA on a cyclical basis according to the MFHEA guidelines, once every five (5) years.
Consideration of the recommendations in the audit report when monitoring and reviewing activities.
The recommendations will be integrated into the annual continuous improvement action plan and communicated to all the school’s stakeholders in the interest of total transparency.
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Licensed by: The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA)
License number: 2021-018
Category: Higher Education Institution
Member of College de Paris