Knights College Malta: What to Know Before You Apply

Quick answer: Knights College is a further and higher education institution licensed by the Malta Further and Higher Education Authority (MFHEA), operating under Licence No. 2013-FHI-020. Through its partnership with Learners Education, students in Dubai and across the UAE can study Knights-awarded MBA and BBA programs entirely online, with qualifications pegged to the Malta Qualifications Framework (MQF) and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). Here is what that actually means for you, and what to check before you apply.

What Is Knights College, Really?

Knights College is a private further and higher education provider based in Birkirkara, Malta, operating from the Mdina Road business district. It previously traded as the Central Mediterranean Business School before rebranding to Knights College as part of a wider push to position itself as an international education brand rather than a regional one.

The institution has been operating for roughly a decade and reports graduating classes in the hundreds each year. It is also a member of EURASHE, the European Association of Institutions in Higher Education, a body that represents professional and vocationally oriented higher education institutions across Europe. Membership in EURASHE is not itself an accreditation, but it does place Knights among a recognized network of European higher education providers rather than an isolated, unaffiliated school.

None of that is the part that actually matters for your decision, though. The part that matters is who licenses Knights to award qualifications in the first place, and what level those qualifications sit at. That is where MFHEA comes in.

The Accreditation Body: MFHEA, Explained Plainly

The Malta Further and Higher Education Authority, MFHEA, is Malta’s independent national regulator for further and higher education. It was formally established under Malta’s revised Education Act, which took effect on 1 January 2021, though its predecessor bodies performed similar functions before that date. Under Maltese law, specifically Subsidiary Legislation 607.03 on Licensing, Accreditation and Quality Assurance, every institution offering further or higher education in or from Malta is legally required to hold an MFHEA license to operate.

Knights College holds MFHEA Licence No. 2013-FHI-020. That license is what allows the institution to award qualifications that are officially pegged to the Malta Qualifications Framework. In practical terms, this means Knights isn’t self-declaring its own academic standards. Its programs are assessed and registered against a national framework that Malta’s government maintains and that other countries can cross-reference.

Before enrolling anywhere claiming Malta accreditation, it’s worth checking three things directly on MFHEA’s own register rather than taking a provider’s word for it: whether the institution itself is licensed, whether the specific program you want is accredited (a license covers the institution, not automatically every course it runs), and what MQF level that specific program sits at. MFHEA maintains a public list of licensed providers and accredited programs for exactly this reason.

What MQF Level Actually Means for Your Qualification

This is the part most comparison articles skip, and it’s the part that actually determines what your degree is worth on paper.

The Malta Qualifications Framework has eight levels, mirrored against the European Qualifications Framework so that a qualification earned in Malta can be understood and compared across the EU. Each level corresponds to a familiar type of qualification:

MQF / EQF Level	Typical Qualification	ECTS Credits
Level 4	Sixth Form / Matriculation	Varies
Level 5	Higher Diploma	Varies
Level 6	Bachelor’s Degree (e.g., BBA)	180 ECTS
Level 7	Master’s Degree (e.g., MBA)	90 ECTS
Level 8	Doctorate (e.g., DBA)	Varies

Knights College offers programs spanning Level 4 through Level 8, meaning its academic ladder runs from Sixth Form study through doctoral level. The programs relevant to Learners Education’s Dubai students sit at Level 6 (BBA) and Level 7 (MBA).

ECTS, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System, is the other number worth understanding. It measures the actual academic workload behind a qualification, not just its title. A Bachelor’s degree built on 180 ECTS and a Master’s built on 90 ECTS are what you’d expect from a standard three-year and one-year full-time equivalent program respectively. This matters in practice because ECTS credits are what allow a qualification to be recognized, compared, or transferred by another institution or a recognition authority outside Malta. A program that calls itself a “degree” but is light on ECTS credits, or vague about its MQF level, is a signal worth asking about directly.

Why This Matters More Than “Is It Accredited?”

Most partner-institution comparison content stops at a yes-or-no accreditation question. That’s not a very useful question on its own, because plenty of providers can technically claim some form of accreditation while sitting at a lower academic level than the qualification title implies.

The more useful question is: accredited at what level, worth how many ECTS credits, and licensed by whom? For Knights College, the honest answer is that its MBA programs sit at MQF Level 7 with 90 ECTS credits, under an MFHEA institutional license that is a matter of public record. That’s a verifiable, specific answer, not a marketing claim.

Programs Available Through Knights College via Learners Education

Learners Education offers a range of MBA and BBA specializations under the Knights College partnership, including construction management at MBA level and finance at BBA level. If you’re comparing specializations, the MBA and BBA hub pages list the current full range across all partner institutions, not just Knights.

All programs delivered through this partnership are studied entirely online from Dubai. You are not required to travel to Malta at any point, and the degree you receive carries the same MQF-level classification as if you had studied on campus.

How Knights College Compares to Other Partner Institutions

A question we hear often: “Is Knights College better than a local UAE institution, or another partner institution Learners Education works with?”

The honest answer depends on what you need the qualification for, not on which name sounds more prestigious:

• If your goal is a qualification pegged to a recognized European framework, Knights College’s MFHEA license and MQF alignment give you a verifiable academic level (Level 6 for BBA, Level 7 for MBA) that a recognition authority in another country can reference directly.
  
  
• If your priority is maximum brand recognition specifically within the UAE job market, that’s a different question entirely, and it’s worth discussing directly with an academic advisor rather than assuming any one partner institution wins on that front by default.
  
  
• If you plan to use the degree for immigration, visa, or government recognition purposes in the UAE, the qualification will likely need to go through the UAE’s own recognition process regardless of which partner institution awards it. Our degree equivalency and attestation guide covers what that process actually involves.
  
  

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Have questions about which Knights College program fits your career goals? Get in touch with our admissions team.