The University of Malta traces its origins to the founding of the Collegium Melitense by the Jesuits in 1592. The College was raised to university status by Grand Master Manoel Pinto de Fonseca in 1769. It is the highest teaching tertiary institution in Malta and is government financed. It is located in Msida. Conscious of its public role, the university strives to create courses which are relevant and timely in response to national, regional and international social and economic needs. There are over 11,000 students including 1000 foreign/exchange students from nearly 92 different countries, following full-time or part-time degree and diploma courses.

The Faculty of Education was set up within the University of Malta in 1978. Its focus remains in pre-service and in-service teacher education. Today, its flagship teacher training programmes involve a Master’s in Teaching and Learning as the teacher training path for primary and secondary level teachers, and a B.A. (Hons) ECEC for pre-school educators. In addition, the Faculty of Education houses over 100 academics in various areas and offers several programmes at postgraduate level including a Certificate in Mentoring, M.Ed and Doctoral programmes. The faculty strives to promote quality education in all its aspects, primarily through teaching, research, consultancy work, and the provision of educational resources, and by modelling the high standards that it strives to achieve in all learning settings. It is committed to a dynamic and productive interplay between theory and practice, and between research and policymaking.

The University of Malta is participating in SCIREARLY through the Department of Early Childhood and Primary Education. The team, comprising of Prof. Suzanne Gatt, Dr. Rosienne Camilleri and Dr. Charmaine Bonello bring wide knowledge and experience in education, ranging from early years, primary education to literacy, underachievement, learning pedagogy, giftedness, social inclusion, and science education among other areas. The UM team is responsible for coordinating the systematic review on social determinants for underachievement as part of the work in WP1 and leading WP6 in developing an evidence-based framework to address underachievement in Europe, based on the project’s research findings.