Villa College is the leading private higher education institution in the Maldives, offering a wide range of programmes in the Maldives and catering to the educational needs of over 4000 students enrolled in the College. Villa College was registered as the first private College in the Maldives on 17th October 2007.  The College initially started with 58 students, has grown exponentially over the past 14 years, now catering to over 4000 students. At present Villa College offers over 155 programmes ranging from Certificate Level 1 programmes to Masters’ level programmes and have degree awarding power endowed by the Maldives Qualification Authority. The graduate output has steadily increased over the years, with over 14,000 graduates, establishing Villa College as the most reputable higher education provider in the Maldives.

Villa College is built upon five main guiding pillars, namely, quality, affordability, accessibility, flexibility, and industry engagement, which form the cornerstones for all the processes within the College. Quality is incorporated within all processes of the College, and this is accepted by the Maldivian community and the international community as evidenced by the recognition, accreditation, and acknowledgement from international quality agencies.

Project Goals

For Villa College, similar to all South Asian partner country institutions, this project aims to uplift the standards of higher education in line with the international standards and policies. It is expected that this project will help create learning and practicing opportunities for our staff including administrative staff, faculty, students, and researchers. Further, the project is also expected to define and build strong and effective structures, procedures and mechanisms which can lead our institution toward international accreditation and recognition, eventually leading to some world ranking.

To achieve these objectives, Villa College will focus on building competency in providing good quality programs through technology mediated provision of higher education, effective delivery techniques and practices and its regular monitoring, following the international quality standards in line with national and local needs and policies, strengthening internationalisation initiatives and dealing effectively with issues of recognition of degrees. Recognising these broad aims, Villa College expects the following objectives to be achieved through the SSAPI project:

  • Capacity building in the areas of developing policies and procedures, development and implementation of a mechanism to assess and evaluate academic activities
  • Seeking strategic support in identifying the key areas of academic development and initiating a long-term improvement process.
  • Drafting action plans supporting the processes of quality enhancement in teaching, learning and administration.
  • Developing a qualifications framework, as per the international standards, by setting out the attributes and abilities that can be expected from the holder of a qualification.
  • Training on reformation of the systems, policies and procedures based on the key focus areas identified.
  • Establishing sound and sustainable processes and mechanisms to ensure effective management and continuous improvement of teaching and learning.
  • Developing standardization mechanisms and quality assurance processes and methods of evaluation in order to affirm that the quality of provision and the standard of awards are being maintained and to foster curriculum, subject and staff development, together with research and other scholarly activities.
  • Strengthening the integration of education, research and innovation to achieve long term socio-economic objectives.

Project Members

Dr. Ahmed Shahid
Dean of Research, Institute for Research and Innovation
Team member

Dr. Mohamed Adil
Deputy Vice Rector, Research and Innovation
Project Manager and Lead

Ms. Mariyam Nazviya
Director, Policy and International Relations
Team member

Mr. Moosa Mohamed Manik
Director, Institute for Academic Development
Team member