Once resigned that she would always be bottom of her class, academic Claudia Borg never imagined that at 41 she would be decked in a toga graduating with a doctorate.

While always eager to take up a challenge, as a little girl Dr Borg struggled to keep up, at one point even repeating a year at school.

Growing up in the 1980s, when awareness on learning difficulties was poorer than it is now, Dr Borg would only find out she had dyslexia at the age of 12.

“I would just switch off and spend most of the time daydreaming. I remember that every year my report card would be full of very low marks,” she recalled.

“While reading I would mix words and letters up but I was unaware that I was dyslexic and I had kind of accepted that everyone else was just more intelligent than I was,” Dr Borg told The Sunday Times of Malta just days after graduating.

She admitted that despite struggling at times, she soon became an avid reader and in Form 4, she sat for her English and Accounts O Levels.

Maltese was another story, however, as Dr Borg struggled with the complex words and sentences.

It’s important to believe that you can achieve whatever you want to achieve in life

“I was unable to get my brain to wire up between the words I read and their sounds and meaning. It remained all tangled up. I sat for my O Level several times, six to be exact.”

In her 20s, she tried her hand at a number of jobs, from accounts to sales and marketing, yet nothing stuck and she would become disheartened.

“At 24, with no idea what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, a friend of mine asked me whether I’d be interested in attending a basic IT course, purely by chance.” Somewhat reluctant at first, having never worked on anything IT-related, Dr Borg finally discovered a world that made it possible for her to be “continuously challenged” and want to keep learning.

At 26 she enrolled in university for a degree in IT. It was like getting a cold shower. In the first lecture she realised the course was much more complex than she expected. In fact, she had to supplement her studies with private lessons to keep up.

But she did not let this deter her, completing her course, obtaining a Master’s a few years later and now a doctorate.

Mature students are often reluctant to sign up for a university course, perhaps fearing the age gap and its effect on their ability to learn.

Dr Borg dismissed these fears outright. “I know this is a cliché but age is just a number at the end of the day. It’s important to believe that you can achieve whatever you want to achieve in life,” she said.

She is now lecturing within the University’s IT department and her desire to learn is as strong as ever – she spends a lot of her time not in the lecture rooms but carrying out research.

Dr Borg’s tips for success

Asked what advice she would give to younger students, she said she would encourage them to not limit themselves by their own beliefs.

“We tend to do this a lot. We believe something so strongly about ourselves and then that limits us so we do not even try.

“I always had this curiosity of wanting to try my hand at everything. So I’d say be curious and never say never.”

She also encouraged parents not to compare their children with others, admitting that in her case, setting her own goals worked in her favour.

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