The EQF is a comparison framework
The European Qualifications Framework has eight levels defined through learning outcomes. It functions as a translation tool between national qualifications frameworks, helping learners, employers, institutions, and authorities compare the level of qualifications across systems.
The level does not describe a specific curriculum or make every qualification at that level identical. It communicates the expected altitude of knowledge, skills, responsibility, and autonomy.
Level 8 is doctoral level
The official EQF descriptors place Level 8 at the most advanced frontier of a field of work or study. The expected skills include advanced synthesis and evaluation used to solve critical research or innovation problems and to extend or redefine knowledge or professional practice.
Malta’s Qualifications Framework identifies Level 8 doctoral programs as including both PhD and professional doctorate qualifications. A DBA and a PhD can therefore share the same framework level while pursuing different kinds of research contribution.
What Level 8 does not tell you
The framework level alone does not tell you who awards the degree, whether the program is currently accredited, how it is delivered, what field it covers, how many credits it carries, or whether a particular employer or authority will accept it for a defined purpose.
Always read the level together with the official program record and the complete award title. “Level 8” is a reference point, not a substitute for due diligence.
- It does not make a professional doctorate and a PhD identical.
- It does not grant automatic professional practice rights.
- It does not guarantee admission to another institution.
- It does not determine immigration or public-employment outcomes.
- It does not replace program-level accreditation.
How MQF and EQF work together
The Malta Qualifications Framework organizes qualifications in Malta and is referenced to the EQF. This lets an MQF level communicate through a shared European reference structure while the Maltese authorities retain responsibility for the national system and its accredited programs.
For a Maltese qualification, verify the MQF level in the Malta Qualifications Database and then use the EQF reference to understand the comparable European level.
Apply the distinction to SMC doctorates
SMC publishes two Level 8 doctoral routes: the Doctor of Business Administration as a professional doctorate and the Doctor of Philosophy as a research doctorate. Both require doctoral-level inquiry and an original contribution, but their intended research orientation differs.
Choose between them by the problem you want to investigate, the contribution you intend to make, and the academic framework of the exact program—not by assuming that one framework label settles the decision.