With reference to the letter ‘University entry requirements’ (April 5), attention should be drawn to the motivations underlining the learning and obtaining a pass mark in the subjects that are required for admission to the professional courses offered by the University.
The 1838 Fundamental Statute of the University of Malta required students aspiring to the faculties of Theology, law and medicine to follow a four-year course in the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts. If the students had previously attended the Lyceum they were allowed direct admission. Students coming from other schools were required to pass a rigorous examination before admission to the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts.
The four-year course required the study of Latin and Italian literature, composition, elocution and logic in the first year; elementary physics, Latin and Italian literature, composition, elocution and English literature in the second year; higher mathematics and political economy in the third year; and mathematical physics and statistics in the fourth year. Students were entitled to graduate Master of Philosophy and Arts.
Governor H. F. Bouverie (1836-1839) demonstrated his conviction that education was the basis of all the institutions of the island of Malta and that its success or failure depended on the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts.
Canon Emmanuel Rossignaud, rector of the University (1834-1841), reported a year later on the progress of the University saying that studies followed in the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts benefited not only the students who studied science subjects in the future but also students who studied commerce and arts.
However, the Fundamental Statute’s stand on a high-level education of the students was flawed by allowing students to attend lectures in some branches only of the Faculty of Philosophy and Arts as were necessary for enabling them to pass to the schools of Theology, law and medicine. But no student ever graduated from this faculty. Patrick Keenan (Keenan Report 1880) called this fragmentary teaching of different subjects “the special feature and predominant evil of this faculty” because of “this extraordinary absence of a convergent or concurrent course of studies, designed to constitute the basis of a liberal education, however limited or unambitious its character”.
To remedy this situation Keenan introduced “a matriculation examination in a course of Latin, English, Italian, geography, history and mathematics” spread over a period of three years. At the end of the third year, the University would grant the degree of Master of Arts.
Research in the University documentation shows that students, lay and cleric, succeeded to graduate MA and BA and contributed to the cultural progress of Maltese society.