While going down yet another distance learning rabbit hole online, I stumbled upon South Europe College. According to their website, they solely offer postgraduate degrees in business, project management, etc. Their site also mentions that they are accredited in Malta: https://southeurope.edu.mt/about-us-south-europe-college/ Glancing at their programs, the tuition price is almost too good to be true: 750 EUR / semester. For full-time students, that comes out to 2250 EUR for a full-time student and 4500 EUR for a part-time student. For our American friends, that would be roughly 2344.05 - 4688.10 freedom dollars. Are there any experts here that could help verify the claims of Maltese accreditation? Because if they are indeed accredited in Malta, then this is a steal for a business degree that's likely equivalent to RA in the US.
Yes, they are licensed in Malta, a hotspot for international distance learning: https://qualifications.mfhea.gov.mt/#/institutions?institution=MFHEA-ORG-410&search=true And IMHO it's not that their prices are too good to be true, it's that most Western institutions are grossly overpriced. After all, HAU can do an MBA for three grand.
Twenty or 30 years ago, I would have argued that recognition by a school's home government would be sufficient. It was a criterion often accepted by universities and other agencies, as well as AARCAO. But since then we've seen the rise of foreign credential evaluators. While they are a sloppy bunch, they're probably necessary since the explosion of distance learning has made it much more possible to earn a degree from a non-U.S. school while living in the U.S. So.... The efficacy or recognition of Maltese accreditation (or whatever they call their approval) is really in the eyes of the beholder. Increasingly, that means a foreign credential evaluating agency. What do they say?
I suppose Americans could go by that. But as you know, what we've often seen in the past is that some foreign credential evaluators get it wrong and others get it right. What they offer isn't a ruling, it's just, like, their opinion, man.
Is there any reason to believe these Malta things may NOT be able to get a favorable evaluation? Woolf here makes a claim their degrees has been accepted as equivalent by one NACES member in US and one recognized evaluator (University of Toronto's CES): Woolf Accreditation
If Woolf, the most organizationally avant garde institution in Malta, can get a positive evaluation from a NACES member, there's no reason to believe a more conventional institution based there wouldn't get the same.
I didn't say there was, nor can that be inferred from my post. The OP asked about "Maltese accreditation" and I noted how foreign credential evaluators have inserted themselves into the process.
