The setting up of the College was a significant step forward in education because until then those desirous of obtaining knowledge had to go to Sicily. With their arrival in Malta the Jesuits were the pioneers in education of the people.
The Instrumentum Fundationis Collegii, dated 12 November 1592, was published by Notary Giacomo Sillato and witnessed by Grand Master Verdala, Bishop Gargallo, Inquisitor Ludovico dell’Armi and Padre Pietro Casati S.J.
The principles that regulated every aspect of study under the control of the Society, inspired by and crystallized from the Ignatian rule, were codified for the first time by an international team of six Jesuits in 1586 and called Ratio Studiorum.
According to the Jesuit Constitutions, as many as five faculties could be established in any university of the Society, namely those of Theology, Philosophy, Literature, Laws and Medicine with the proviso that members of the Order were precluded from lecturing in these last two disciplines.
With the expulsion of the Jesuits from Malta in 1766 the Collegio Melitensis "became the foundation stone" of the University of Malta. The Holy See conceded to Grand Master Emanuel Pinto "to avail himself of the revenue deriving from the property of the Jesuits to set up an institution for higher studies".
The Holy See authorised the institution of the University in Malta. The three professional courses were theology, jurisprudence and medicine.
