And here’s to you, Ms Tessie Camilleri: the University of Malta’s first ever female graduate, who matriculated with a degree in literature in 1922, and who has just had a campus walkway named in her honour.
Ms Camilleri was one of a pair of young women who enrolled in separate courses – Arts and Medicine – at the University of Malta in October 1919. The other was Blanche Huber, who went on to become a successful doctor in her own right, and who already has a street named after her in Sliema.
As the Arts course was (and still is) shorter than Medicine, Tessie Camilleri beat her friend and fellow student to the position of first-ever female graduate by two years.
On 2 May 1922, The Daily Malta Chronicle took note of Camilleri’s graduation:
“Miss Camilleri has greatly distinguished herself in the Course of Literature, revealing intellectual endowments and attainments of no mean order, and we heartily congratulate her on her well-deserved success which has gained for her the distinction of being the first lady graduate of the University of Malta.”
Tessie Camilleri was born on 6 January, 1901, into what can be described as a family of female achievers. Her aunt, Giulia Camilleri, was an inspector of schools, while three other aunts ran a respected private school in Valletta. 
Shortly after her graduation, she married Mr Edgar Staines, who worked in the Administration of the University, and had four children in quick succession.  She died on 2 October 1930, aged only 29.
The naming of the walkway – Vjal Tessie Camilleri, opposite the old university gateway by the side of Student House – was one of a number of events to commemorate Foundation Day.