The Malta College of Arts, Science, and Technology (MCAST) awarded certificates to the first 29 alumni who successfully passed the Engineering Pre Warrant Qualification Course (PWQC) on Monday, 30 January. Nine students are electrical engineers, while twenty are mechanical engineers. These graduates are leading engineering teams in different sectors and will now be eligible to apply for a warrant.

This occasion underlined the alumni’s hard work, recognising their important contributions to the engineering field nationally and internationally. It is an important milestone for the College in gaining recognition as a centre for excellence.

Minister for Public Works and Planning Stefan Zrinzo said, “MCAST is essential in delivering high-quality academic engineering programmes that are both innovative and industrially relevant to its students. This year the College has attracted an increase of 8% students; the most significant increase was in sciences and engineering.”

In recent months, the engineering board formally notified MCAST that the Accreditation Agency for Study Programmes in Engineering, Informatics, Natural Sciences and Mathematics (ASIIN e.V.) deemed the College’s Bachelor in Engineering programmes as having the necessary academic standards and are highly similar to programmes offered within other European institutions.

ASIIN noted that the Pre Warrant Qualification Course (PWQC) leads to results that confirm the engineering capabilities of the applicants and regarded this as “a reasonable justification for their eligibility for the award of the Engineering Warrant”.

The local Board of Engineers unanimously approved the conclusions of the ASIIN’s report above and confirmed its position in line with the ASIIN’s recommendations.

The industry has welcomed the engineering degrees offered at MCAST as the College emphasises the professional standards and ethics required by this important sector. MCAST has invested in equipment, including a €7 million new state-of-the-art building for the Institute of Engineering and Transport inaugurated in May 2018.