A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MALTA

Following the abatement of the plague of 1675, GrandMaster Nicolo' Cotoner appointed Fra Dr. Giuseppe Zammit as "lettore " in Anatomy and Surgery at the Sacra Infermeria on the 19th October 1676. This attempt at formalising medical teaching at the Order's hospital is considered by many as the beginning of our medical school. Zammit went on to establish the first medical library on the islands as well as a medicinal herbal garden in one of the ditches of Fort Saint Elmo.

After the expulsion of the Jesuit Order from Malta in 1768, GrandMaster Pinto appropriated all the revenue accruing from its property in the island with the aim of establishing a "Pubblica Universita` di Studi Generali". The decree constituting the University was signed by Pinto on the 22nd November 1769, having been authorised to do so by the papal Brief "Sedula Romani Pontific", received on the 20th October 1769. On the 25th May 1771, a Collegio Medico was set up as one of the faculties making up the University. At the time of the foundation of the University, the "Principe dell'Accademia dei Medici " was the surgeon Michelangelo Grima who also held the combined chair of Anatomy and Surgery at the Medical School, whilst the Professor of Medicine was Giorgio Locano.

The first Rector of the university was Fr. Roberto Costaguti of the Servites' Order who had in previous years established a reputation as a preacher. A number of other foreign professors were brought over to help establish the university and these were installed in June 1771. They all lived together in the former Jesuit College. It appears that the Medical Faculty was the sole one staffed only by local teachers, a tradition which has been maintained through the centuries.

The University was to suffer a number of setbacks throughout its long and chequered history. Soon after Pinto died his successor, Ximenes, reduced the umber of chairs and sent back all expatriate staff as an economic measure. During the brief French interregnum formal University teaching came to an end as Napoleon abolished the University five days after landing in Malta on the 18th June 1798. Fortunately, a few weeks after the French were forced to leave, Sir Alexander ball r-instituted the University and appointed as rector Canon F.X. Caruana on the 28th October 1800 in recognition of his services during the uprising against the French. The first rector appointed by the Governor Sir Thomas Maitland, at the beginning of British sovereignty, was the Dominican Fr. Gerolamo Inglott, the Professor of Philosophy. During the British period the University underwent a series of changes in its statutes and regulations bringing it in line with universities in the United Kingdom. The present coat of arms and the motto "Ut Fructificemus Deo " taken from St. Paul's Epistle were proposed on the 1st March 1923 by the rector, Professor Sir Themistocles Zammit.

The Coat-of-Arms of the University of Malta was described by the Royal College of Heralds as "Per pale Argent and Gules an Open Book proper clasped and bound on a Chief Quarterly of the second and fist in the first and fourth quarters a Cross, in the second and third five Crescents in saltire all counterchanged".

In 1901, the Medical Degree of the University obtained official recognition throughout the British Empire. Until this time, the University had conferred degrees in Literature, Theology, Law and Medicine, but the Statute of 1915 enabled the University to increase its Faculties from four to six, by separating Lterature and Science and raising the Course of Engineering and Architecture to Faculty status. A seventh Faculty, that of Dental Surgery, was added in 1954.

A system of triennial grants came into force in 1958 and the University block vote was increased. The Library and Administrative Services were strengthened and full-time staff were appointed in the Faculties of Arts and of Sciences, thereby making it possible to admit students into these Faculties every year instead of every third year, as was previously the rule. The Evans Laboratories, built out of Colonial Development and Welfare funds, were opened in 1959 and housed the Faculty of Science until the move to a new site at Msida in 1968 together with the other Faculties. The clinical department of the Medical School had in the meantime moved into a new building which was built next to St. Luke's Hospital in 1968. The Msida campus is at present being further extended in order to accommodate the large increase in the student population which occurred in the 1990s.

In 1937, the University had been accorded royal patronage by King George VI, thereby acquiring a new title "Royal University of Malta". In 1974, an Education Act changed the title back to the original "University of Malta". The Education Amendment Act of 1978 restructured the style and pattern of higher education in Malta. The Polytechnic of Malta (otherwise known as the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology), together with the Faculties of Engineering & Architecture, Medicine and Surgery, Dental Surgery, and the newly constituted Faculties of Education and of Management Studies, formed what was now called the "New University". The Faculties of Arts, Science and Law remained at the University of Malta, which was called the "Old University". The Faculty of Theology was withdrawn from the University of Malta and was re-established under diocesan aegis at the Archbishop's Seminary in Rabat. The "Old University" was not to provide instruction in Theology, but could confer degrees or other academic distinctions in this discipline. A further amendment to the Education Act in 1980 changed the title "New University " to "University of Malta" and transferred to it the Faculty of Laws while suppressing the Faculties of Arts and Science together with the "Old University".

In September 1987 the number of Faculties was increased from six to nine. The Faculties of Arts and Science were re-established and the Faculties of Engineering and Architecture was reorganised into two separate Faculties, namely the Faculty of Architecture and Civil Engineering and the Faculty of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. The Faculty of Theology was re-established as a tenth Faculty at the University in 1988 and the Education Act of 1988 refounded the University and the original name of "University of Malta".

Reference: University of Malta Calendar 1991/1992, University of Malta, 1991, vol.1, p.8-11