MCAST’s Quality Assurance Department organised the MCAST Conference on Artificial Intelligene in Further and Higher Education on 16 October. This Conference showcased a collaborative dialogue between education, policy and regulatory sectors to explore the implications of the EU AI Act on education.

The event focused on ensuring that AI in Education aligns with the principles of ethics, inclusivity, transparency and human-centred learning, as emphasised by the Principal and CEO, Mr Stephen Vella, in his opening speech. Ing. Pierre Dalmas, Deputy Principal Quality Assurance, Education and Training Programmes and Regulatory Systems followed with an overview of the draft MCAST Position Statement and Policy on the Safe and Ethical Use of AI.

This was complemented by the proficient contribution of Mr Neil Micallef from the Malta Digital Innovation Authority (MDIA) on the EU AI Act with a Focus on GenAI in Education. Dr Marco Fagnano, Legal Counsel, Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner (IDPC) and representatives of the College including Mr Danjel Bugeja and Mr Simon Callus from MCAST’s Institute for the Creative Arts, the President Kunsill Studenti MCAST (KSM), Mr Matthew Sant,  Dr Jacqueline Micallef Grimaud, Director Quality Assurance, and Dr Mario Mallia Milanes, Director Information Systems also joined the panel of experts for further discussion on AI in Further and Higher Education.

This conference has received both national and international exposure via IDPC’s publication of a news item in relation to its participation in this event and MDIA’s inclusion of this event as a CodeWeek initiative and, hence, part of Malta’s contribution to the EU CodeWeek on the relative international platform.