The University of Malta is celebrating Foundation Day with a number of activities this year. Notable among these is the commemoration of its first female graduate, Tessie Camilleri, with the naming of a campus walkway in her honour. Vjal Tessie Camilleri is the walkway opposite the old university gateway by the side of the Student House.

Tessie Camilleri entered the University in October 1919 to read for an Arts degree. She graduated B.Litt. on May 2, 1922, and became Malta's first female graduate.

In June 1919, two important women in tertiary education, matriculated. Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber entered the University together, the first choosing Arts, the other Medicine. As her course was shorter, Tessie Camilleri was destined to become Malta's first female graduate.

She followed courses in English Literature, Philosophy and Latin Literature. At this private ceremony, Professor Temi Zammit dedicated his graduation speech to the importance of female participation in tertiary education, congratulating Miss Camilleri and her "fellow lady-students who have joined this University" and echoed the idea prevalent in England in the 19th century, that the study of English Literature was conducive to the development of a "homogeneous society with healthy aims and aspirations".

Miss Camilleri was born on January, 6, 1901 into a well-educated family. Her aunt, Giulia Camilleri, was an inspector of schools, while three other aunts ran a well-respected private school in Valletta. The fact that Miss Camilleri had these female role models must surely have influenced her decision to take this unusual step. Shortly after her graduation, she married Edgar Staines, who worked in the administration of the University, and had four children in quick succession. Sadly, she died aged only 29 on October 2, 1930.

This excerpt from an article in The Daily Malta Chronicle (May 2, 1922) records her graduation: "Miss Camilleri has greatly distinguished herself in the Course of Literature, revealing intellectual endowments and attainments of no mean order, and we heartily congratulate her on her well-deserved success, which has gained for her the distinction of being the first lady graduate of the University of Malta."

Before 1915, none of the University's several statutes specifically denied access to women, but it was perhaps inconceivable at the time for a female to wish to enter tertiary education.

By 1972, the number of female graduates had reached 30 (21.13 per cent of the total number of graduates for that year). By 1980, the percentage of female graduates was still under 33 per cent (45 females, 137 males), and the number remained practically the same into the late Eighties. In October 1991, female students at the University of Malta first surpassed males (684 females, 680 males). By last October, female applicants had reached 1,829 against 1,336 males. These statistics beg the controversial question whether tertiary education is now becoming a female domain.