Tessie Camilleri: The Woman Who Opened the Door to University Education in Malta

By Mary Lourdes Bonnici

Introduction

History is often shaped not only by dramatic public events, but also by individuals who quietly cross boundaries that previous generations had been unable to cross. In Malta’s educational history, Tessie Camilleri holds such a place.

In 1919, Camilleri and Blanche Huber became the first two women admitted to undergraduate degree studies at the University of Malta. Three years later, on 2 May 1922, Tessie Camilleri graduated with a Bachelor of Literature (B.Litt.), becoming the first female graduate of the University of Malta. (L-Università ta' Malta)

Her achievement represented far more than an individual academic success. At a time when university education for women in Malta was only beginning to become a genuine possibility, her graduation demonstrated that women could participate successfully in the highest levels of academic life.

Who Was Tessie Camilleri?

Tessie M. Camilleri was born on 6 January 1901 in Sliema, Malta. She grew up within an educated family in which several women were already associated with education.

According to historical material published by the University of Malta, her aunt Giulia Camilleri was an inspector of schools, while three other aunts operated a respected private school in Valletta. Growing up around women involved professionally in education may have provided Tessie with examples of female intellectual achievement at a time when such role models were considerably less common than they are today.

Her family background is particularly significant because education does not develop in isolation. Encouragement, expectations and exposure to educated role models can influence whether a young person imagines higher education as something achievable.

For Tessie Camilleri, that possibility would eventually lead her into Maltese history.

Malta and Women's Access to Higher Education

To understand the importance of Camilleri's achievement, it is necessary to understand the educational environment into which she entered.

For much of the University of Malta's earlier history, women were effectively absent from university degree education.

A University of Malta historical study notes that statutes prior to 1915 did not specifically deny admission to women. However, the author observes that the possibility of a woman attempting to enter the University appears to have been largely outside the expectations of the period.

An important legal and institutional development came with the University Statute of 1915, which explicitly stated:

“Sex shall not be a ground of disqualification.”

This represented an important formal step towards equal access. A later University statute, adopted in 1921, confirmed the principle in even clearer terms by declaring that University examinations, degrees, diplomas and certificates were open to everyone without distinction of sex.

Yet changing a regulation did not immediately change society.

The University of Malta has noted that although women were formally permitted to follow university courses from 1915, another four years passed before women enrolled in undergraduate degree courses. University education was not free at the time, meaning that financial circumstances formed another practical barrier alongside prevailing social expectations. (L-Università ta' Malta)

The history is also more nuanced than simply saying that no woman had ever studied at the University before 1919. Lucia Levanzin Inglott had earlier attended a University-associated midwifery programme and obtained a diploma after studies between 1915 and 1917. Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber, however, became the first women admitted to undergraduate degree studies at the University in 1919. (L-Università ta' Malta)

That distinction makes their entry a major milestone in Maltese educational history.

A Historic Year: 1919

In June 1919, Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber matriculated.

In October 1919, the two young women entered the University of Malta together as undergraduate students. Camilleri chose the humanities and Arts, while Huber entered Medicine. (L-Università ta' Malta)

Imagine the significance of that moment.

They were not entering a university in which generations of female students had already established themselves. They were entering an institution where the presence of women as degree students was itself something new.

Their decision therefore carried significance beyond their individual ambitions.

Every lecture they attended and every examination they completed helped demonstrate that university education was no longer exclusively a male domain.

Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber: Two Pioneering Paths

The stories of Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber are closely connected.

They entered university together in October 1919, yet selected very different academic paths.

Camilleri pursued studies in the humanities, while Huber undertook Medicine. Because Camilleri's programme was shorter, she completed her degree first and consequently became the University's first female graduate.

Huber's achievement was equally important in another field. She subsequently became the first woman to graduate in Medicine from the University of Malta, completing her medical degree in 1925.

Together, Camilleri and Huber represent a remarkable turning point.

One opened a path in the humanities. The other challenged barriers within medicine. Their choices demonstrated that women's intellectual capabilities did not belong within one narrow area of education.

Their presence helped establish something far more powerful: the principle that women belonged at university.

Tessie Camilleri's Academic Journey

Camilleri studied three principal areas:

English Literature, Philosophy and Latin Literature.

These disciplines demanded substantial analytical ability, linguistic competence and engagement with complex intellectual traditions.

The surviving historical record suggests that Camilleri did considerably more than simply complete her studies. She distinguished herself academically.

The contemporary Daily Malta Chronicle, reporting on her graduation in May 1922, praised her intellectual achievements and described her success as well deserved, explicitly recognising her new distinction as the first woman graduate of the University of Malta.

Such contemporary recognition matters because it shows that her achievement was understood as historically significant at the very moment it occurred.

She had crossed a threshold that no woman pursuing a University of Malta undergraduate degree had crossed before her.

2 May 1922: Malta's First Female University Graduate

On 2 May 1922, Tessie Camilleri graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Literature (B.Litt.).

With that graduation, she became the first female graduate of the University of Malta. (L-Università ta' Malta)

Professor Themistocles “Temi” Zammit, who was Rector of the University, referred during the graduation ceremony to the importance of female participation in tertiary education and congratulated Camilleri and the other women who had begun entering university life.

This was much more than the awarding of one degree.

A university degree is a formal recognition of knowledge and academic achievement. Until that day, however, no female undergraduate at the University of Malta had received that recognition.

After Tessie Camilleri, it could no longer be argued that graduating from Malta's University was something women had never done.

A precedent had been created.

And precedents can transform institutions.

Why Her Graduation Was Historically Important

The significance of Tessie Camilleri's graduation can be understood at several levels.

First, it demonstrated academic capability. Her achievement challenged assumptions that advanced intellectual education was primarily or exclusively suited to men.

Second, it established visibility. Once a woman had graduated successfully, future female students had a real Maltese example to look towards.

Third, it represented institutional change becoming lived reality. Rules allowing women's participation were important, but genuine equality required women actually entering classrooms, completing programmes and receiving degrees.

Finally, her graduation helped shift expectations.

Educational progress frequently develops through a combination of legislation, institutional reform and individual courage. Formal access opens a door, but someone still has to become the first person to walk through it.

Tessie Camilleri was one of those people.

The Barriers Women Faced

It would be misleading to assume that the formal admission of women immediately created equal educational opportunity.

Women of Camilleri's generation lived within a social environment in which expectations surrounding gender, family and education could strongly influence their choices.

University study was also financially difficult. The University of Malta has specifically noted that higher education was not free when Camilleri and Huber entered, which helps explain why formal permission for women to enrol did not immediately produce female university students. (L-Università ta' Malta)

Furthermore, educational pathways themselves could reflect gendered expectations. Historical studies of Malta show that female education was frequently influenced by assumptions concerning women's expected domestic and social roles. These attitudes did not disappear simply because university regulations became formally gender-neutral. (L-Università ta' Malta)

For a young woman to pursue university education therefore involved more than meeting academic requirements.

It could also involve challenging assumptions about what a woman was expected to become.

This makes Camilleri's decision to pursue higher education even more significant.

From Exception to Educational Progress

Tessie Camilleri did not single-handedly transform women's education in Malta, and historical progress should never be attributed to one person alone.

Many women, educators, families, reformers and institutions contributed to the expansion of female educational opportunity.

Nevertheless, pioneers matter because they demonstrate that a boundary can be crossed.

Camilleri became a visible precedent.

Blanche Huber followed with her historic medical graduation. Other women entered different disciplines. Over subsequent decades, women's participation in higher education expanded dramatically.

The contrast with the modern University of Malta is striking.

In 1991, the number of female students at the University exceeded the number of male students for the first time. More recently, the University's Equity Office reported that women constituted 40 of 66 PhD graduates and 912 of 1,477 Master's graduates highlighted during the University's 2024 International Women's Day activities. (L-Università ta' Malta)

These later achievements belong to new generations, but they stand within an educational history whose early university pioneers included Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber.

A Life Beyond the Historic Degree

Following her graduation, Tessie Camilleri married Edgar Staines, and the couple had four children.

Her life was tragically short.

She died on 2 October 1930, aged only 29.

Although she did not live to witness the enormous expansion of women's participation in Maltese higher education during subsequent decades, the achievement she made as a young woman remained part of the University's history.

Decades later, the institution formally ensured that her name would remain visible to future students.

Vjal Tessie Camilleri: Remembering a Pioneer

In 2007, the University of Malta honoured its first female graduate by naming a campus walkway Vjal Tessie Camilleri.

The University's Annual Report records that the walkway was named specifically to commemorate Camilleri, noting her entry into the University in October 1919 and her historic graduation on 2 May 1922. (L-Università ta' Malta)

The gesture carries powerful symbolism.

University students walking along a path bearing her name are moving through an institution that is profoundly different from the one Camilleri entered in 1919.

What was exceptional in her generation has become normal for later generations.

That is one of the clearest signs of genuine social progress.

Her Legacy

Tessie Camilleri's legacy is not based upon political power, celebrity or a long public career.

It rests upon something quieter but enormously important:

she was there when women first began claiming their place within Maltese university education.

Her name represents educational access, intellectual opportunity and the importance of challenging boundaries that society may once have considered normal.

In 2019, the University of Malta marked 100 years of women at the University, specifically commemorating Tessie Camilleri and Blanche Huber as the first two women admitted to university degree studies. (L-Università ta' Malta)

More than a century after they entered their first university classrooms, their stories continue to be recognised.

And that continuing recognition is important.

Historical progress becomes easier to take for granted once its benefits become part of everyday life.

Remembering pioneers allows us to understand that many opportunities considered ordinary today were once extraordinary.

What Tessie Camilleri's Story Can Teach Us Today

Camilleri's story carries lessons that extend far beyond the history of women's education.

It teaches us that access matters. Talent cannot flourish if people are prevented from entering the places where knowledge and opportunity are developed.

It teaches us that representation matters. Seeing someone cross a boundary can make others believe that they can cross it too.

It teaches us that education can challenge social expectations. Learning does more than provide qualifications; it can expand the possibilities individuals and societies imagine for themselves.

It also teaches us that progress often begins quietly.

Tessie Camilleri did not need to know how many women would eventually follow her.

She simply needed the opportunity to learn — and the determination to take it.

Final Reflection: The First Graduate, but Not the Last

There is something powerful about the word first.

The first person faces a path without precedent.

Those who follow know that someone has already proved the journey possible.

When Tessie Camilleri entered the University of Malta alongside Blanche Huber in October 1919, neither woman could have known exactly how Maltese education would change during the century ahead.

When Camilleri received her Bachelor of Literature degree on 2 May 1922, however, something irreversible had occurred.

A Maltese woman had entered university degree education, succeeded academically and graduated.

The boundary had been crossed.

Today, women study, research, teach and graduate across virtually every field of higher education. Their presence may appear entirely normal — and that normality itself represents progress.

But behind every opportunity that becomes ordinary, there are people for whom it was once extraordinary.

Tessie Camilleri reminds us that education becomes transformative when doors are opened, when individuals have the courage to enter them, and when society ensures that those doors remain open for everyone who follows.

Her degree belonged to Tessie Camilleri.

Her milestone belongs to Maltese educational history.

And her legacy belongs to every generation that believes knowledge should never be limited by gender.

References

Baldacchino, G. (2019) ‘Firsts, numbers and trends: gender at the University of Malta’, Centre for Labour Studies: Biennial Report 2017–2018, pp. 9–16. University of Malta. (L-Università ta' Malta)

Camilleri, P. (2007) ‘The Rise and Rise of the Female Graduate: Some milestones in tertiary education for women in Malta’, University of Malta Annual Report 2006, University of Malta, pp. 42–49. (L-Università ta' Malta)

Equity Office (2025) Equity Office Annual Report 2023–2024. University of Malta. (L-Università ta' Malta)

Schiavone, M. (2024) ‘Biography: Tessie Camilleri’, Times of Malta, 6 January. (Times of Malta)

University of Malta (2007) Annual Report 2007. University of Malta. (L-Università ta' Malta)

University of Malta (2019) ‘250 years later and more relevant than ever’. Rector's address, University of Malta. (L-Università ta' Malta)

University of Malta (2019) ‘Women Students at the University of Malta: The First 100 Years’, Newspoint. (L-Università ta' Malta)

University of Malta (2024) ‘With gratitude to the women who paved the way’, Newspoint, 8 March. (L-Università ta' Malta)

Copyright

© 2026 Mary Lourdes Bonnici MBA. All Rights Reserved.

This article is the intellectual property of Mary Lourdes Bonnici MBA. No part of this publication may be copied, reproduced, republished, distributed or transmitted in any form without prior written permission from the author, except for brief quotations used for educational or academic purposes with appropriate acknowledgement.