History
The University traces its origins to the Collegium Melitense founded in 1592 and run by the Jesuits. Following the suppression of the Order in the Kingdom of Sicily (of which Malta was then a vassal), Grandmaster Manuel Pinto da Fonseca seized their assets in Malta, including the Collegium. These assets were used in establishing the University by a decree signed by Pinto on 22 November 1769.
With the arrival of Napoleon in 1798, the University was briefly abolished and transformed into a French École Polytechnique. It was re-established with the arrival of the British in 1800. In 1938, King George VI gave it the title of The Royal University of Malta. The word "Royal" was subsequently removed from the name of the University when Malta became a republic in 1974.
In 1968 the University moved out of Valletta to a new campus in Msida and a new medical school was opened on the grounds of the former St Luke's Hospital in Guardamangia (since moved to the new Mater Dei Hospital).
In the 1970s, under Dom Mintoff's government, the university became more accessible to students with a working-class or middle-class background since financial help started being given. In fact, the university's population increased by around 200% in this period. Up to the 1960s, the total university population was that of 300 students; in the 1970s it approached the 1,000 mark.
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