Andreas Reiff writes:

The University of Malta makes a distinction between students of Maltese nationality and students of other nationalities, called "international students" with respect to application deadlines for courses at university.

While Maltese students can apply to join university after receiving their A-level certificates, mid-to-end July, international students are required to apply earlier, in May.

This means that, the way the application process is handled at the moment, students from EU countries, even if they have the Maltese A-Levels, are treated differently from Maltese students.

Is this in conformity with EU regulations?

If I understand correctly, the reader is here claiming that the deadline for applications for students to apply to join the University of Malta distinguishes between Maltese and other international students. He is claiming that, whereas international students must apply by May for entry into the university, Maltese students have until the end of July to do so. This difference in deadlines, arguably, favours Maltese students and discriminates against international students because it restricts their time window for applying and therefore may even restrict their chance to join the University of Malta.

For the purposes of this reply, I shall focus on the difference in treatment between Maltese and other EU students, it being clear that the University of Malta may well treat Maltese and non-EU students differently. The point here is whether the University of Malta can treat Maltese and EU students differently.

At the outset it must be said that EU students have the right to freedom of movement within the EU for the purposes of study. This entitles them to the right to reside in the country where they go to study. And it also entitles them to equal treatment and access to educational institutions on the same conditions as nationals of the country where they study. An exception to this rule of equal treatment, laid down in EU law, relates to maintenance grants, unless the student's parents have been living, working and paying their taxes in that country.

Thus, for example, a Maltese citizen who goes to study in another EU country is entitled to reside there and is also entitled to access tuition on the same basis as nationals of that country. If tuition is free for citizens of that country, it must also be free to the Maltese student studying there. However, the Maltese student has no automatic right to a maintenance grant or social assistance if this is available to students who are nationals of that country.

Clearly the same applies for EU students seeking to study in Malta.

The European Court of Justice has often had occasion to uphold these points. The court has relied on Article 12 of the EC Treaty which provides that "any discrimination on grounds of nationality shall be prohibited".

In so doing, the court has always emphasised that there can be no discrimination whatsoever as regards the conditions of access to vocational training or to a European educational institution in another member state.

Most of the cases tackled by the court have dealt with conditions requesting foreign students to sit for a special exam, the imposition of fees when fees are not imposed on nationals and so on.

But it is also clear from case-law that the principle of equal treatment prohibits not only overt discrimination by reason of nationality but all covert forms of discrimination which, by the application of other criteria of differentiation and without necessarily making nationality an obvious criterion, effectively lead to the same result of discrimination.

In other words, discrimination, both direct and indirect, is prohibited.

I did not trace any cases which dealt with discrimination applied in administrative formalities, such as imposing one deadline for the submission of applications for entrance into university for Maltese students and another for other EU students, as experienced by this reader.

However, if the administrative formalities complained of by the reader do indeed distinguish between Maltese and other EU-citizens and if these differences prejudice the chances of EU citizens to access university when compared to their Maltese counterparts, then, yes, they may well be discriminatory. And, as such, they would need to be changed.

Readers who would like to ask questions to be answered in this column can send an email, identifying themselves, to contact@simonbusuttil.eu or through www.simonbusuttil.eu.