The Malta university Gozo centre

Abstract

A dream come true! was how Mr Anton Tabone, former Minister for Gozo, described in a nutshell the story behind the Malta University Gozo Centre, officially inaugurated by the then Prime Minister Dr Eddie Fenech Adami on 4 May 1996. An event that is a fulfilment of what had been mere wishful thinking for close to two hundred years. As early as 1815, the Colonial Office in London was deliberating to make Gozo the seat of a "considerable university which may attract the young men of the most enterprising Greek and Italian families and become at the same time a lasting instrument for the extension of our (British) moral influence through the Levant and at least the south of Italy." This proposal was made by Henry E. Bunbury, Under-Secretary of State, on behalf of Earl Bathurst, Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. In a despatch of 12 February 1815 to Sir Thomas Maitland, the first British Governor of Malta, he dwelt at length on the argument. Yet the Governor was not a person to promote projects that were not his brainchild and he seemingly paid little or no attention to the suggestion of the Colonial Office. [excerpt]