Woolf’s license is renewed to 2029

Summary: Woolf’s license has been renewed for 5 years across all degree levels, and Woolf continues to be a collegiate higher education institution – all Woolf colleges are internal academic units. Students must enroll to join Woolf, which commences upon signing your Woolf enrollment agreement – you will have a Woolf student ID card upon enrollment completion.

Woolf’s license as a Higher Education Institution has been renewed by the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA) to 23 December 2029. This is an important milestone for our institution and for the faculty, deans, staff and students who give it life.

Woolf has been licensed in Malta since 2019. Throughout that time, we have pursued a clear purpose: to bring distinct academic communities in our colleges together within one institution, with shared academic standards and responsibility for the education we provide.

The renewal follows a substantial review of how Woolf teaches, assesses, supports students and maintains quality under the Quality Assurance Policy. We are proud of the work behind it. We are also grateful to the faculty, deans and staff who supported that review while continuing to teach and run their programs. Much of the work that sustains a good institution happens quietly. This is a moment to recognize it.

One institution, many internal colleges

Woolf has been continuously licensed as a collegiate higher education institution, and our reporting to the Authority has consistently documented our colleges – with their express approval. Our constitution as an institution is described in our Quality Assurance Policy, which the Authority has continually approved. Our renewal continues that institutional history, and there is no change in our constitution. That policy has been in place since 2019 and is public here: https://woolf.education/regulation/mt/quality-assurance

Today Woolf has over 800 uniquely accredited Degrees, Awards, Postgraduate Certificate programs, etc. across all levels from undergraduate to doctoral. Every degree certificate has been approved by the regulatory Authority naming and displaying both the name of Woolf and the Woolf college – these are also publicly listed on our website next to every degree we offer.

Institutions such as Oxford and Cambridge have made collegiate education familiar: students belong to a college within a larger academic institution. Woolf’s colleges are Woolf. Teaching within them is teaching undertaken by Woolf. Colleges are internal academic communities within a shared framework of institutional responsibility.

Woolf is one collegiate institution. Within Woolf, faculty and students develop their work in collegiate academic communities. Teaching, admissions, academic standards, internal quality assurance and the award of degrees are all functions of the same institution, under the central administration.

Academic freedom and institutional accountability belong together. A collegiate institution must make room for different disciplines and approaches to teaching while maintaining clear, consistent expectations for educational quality. That is ongoing work, and our systems of governance and internal quality assurance are field leading.

Our license has always been a license to be a collegiate institution with a global mission. Woolf’s reporting to our regulatory Authority has documented the collegiate structure continuously throughout the life of our license, including reports on colleges, their deans and student outcomes. Maintaining that record is part of our responsibility as a licensed institution.

Our collegiate structure and the recent notice

On 25 September the MFHEA published a notice about the conditions attached to Woolf’s license. Its wording has prompted student questions about Woolf’s collegiate structure. To be clear: no third party teaches Woolf’s students, and none ever has.

We have written to the Authority asking that the notice be clarified so that its wording does not leave students or the public uncertain about that distinction. Every Woolf student has signed an enrollment agreement with Woolf and holds a Woolf ID card, and every faculty member has signed an agreement with Woolf. If you have these, you are a full member of Woolf: your program is accredited and your degree is awarded by Woolf. Enrollment in Woolf degrees by third parties has never been allowed.

Woolf is one institution. Its colleges are internal academic units within it, and teaching within them is teaching undertaken by Woolf, as it has been since our foundation.

Looking ahead

The renewal is an opportunity to recognize what our Faculty, Deans, staff, and more than 15,000 students have built and to focus on the work ahead: supporting students, strengthening teaching and assessment, and continuing to improve the way our colleges work within a shared institution.

This renewal is a milestone, not a finish line. We are grateful to the faculty, deans, staff and students whose work gives Woolf its substance. Our responsibility is to keep earning their trust through the quality of the education we provide.

Dr Joshua Broggi, President and Head of Institution, Woolf