Maldives amends regulation on accredited programmes run outside the country

The Maldives Qualifications Authority has amended the regulation governing programmes it accredits when they are run outside the Maldives, adding a clause that allows accredited centres to deliver those programmes abroad with the permission of the host country’s authorities. The change is the first amendment to Regulation 2025/R-89 and was published as Regulation 2026/R-84 in the Gazette of the Government of Maldives of 24 September 2026, Volume 55, Issue 152.

The amendment was issued by the Maldives Qualifications Authority under the Ministry of Education, Higher Education and Skills Development, Malé, and appears in Section I of the gazette. The parent text it modifies, Regulation 2025/R-89, is the regulation on programmes accredited by the Maldives Qualifications Authority that are run outside the Maldives; Regulation 2026/R-84 is its first amendment.

The gazette issue is dated 24 September 2026, corresponding to 13 Rabi’ al-Akhir 1448, and is numbered 152 of Volume 55. Regulations and other instruments are published in the gazette by the President’s Office, which receives them for publication at its Legal Affairs desk in Malé; the gazette is also published online at www.gazette.gov.mv.

What the amendment changes

The operative provision inserts a single new sub-clause into article 4 of the 2025 regulation, immediately after the existing sub-clause (ށ). Article 4 is the provision of the 2025 regulation that the amendment targets.

• New article 4(ނ): a programme run by a centre accredited by the MQA, at a level, where the centre has obtained permission from the relevant government authorities of that country to run that programme.

The rest of article 4 is left untouched: the amendment does not restate or replace the existing sub-clauses, and it introduces no other change to the 2025 text.

Entry into force

• The regulation takes effect from the date of its publication in the Government Gazette, that is, 24 September 2026.
• The published text sets out no transitional period and no separate commencement date.

Who is affected

• Maldivian training providers holding MQA accreditation that want to deliver their programmes outside the Maldives.
• Students enrolled in, or considering, MQA-accredited programmes delivered abroad.
• Foreign partner institutions and the host-country authorities that license the delivery of those programmes.

By writing the host government’s permission into the accreditation rules, the amendment gives Maldivian accredited providers an explicit route to run their programmes in other countries and places cross-border delivery on a defined regulatory footing. For students, an MQA-accredited programme delivered abroad now rests on a stated condition in the regulation rather than on an unaddressed gap.

Source: Gazette of the Government of Maldives, No. 152, 24 September 2026, Section I (official reference: 2026/R-84).