Colleges for Women

Founded in 1869, Girton was the first college in the UK that offered women the same residential university education enjoyed by men. Newnham, a second college for women in Cambridge, opened two years later. The women who established Newnham considered the degree course offered to men old-fashioned and consequently the first Newnham students studied a much more flexible programme. Over time the paths taken by the two colleges converged.

Having secured a foothold in Cambridge, women’s battles for equality in the University could begin, but there were relatively few women to campaign. Even after women won degrees in 1948, University statute capped the number of women undergraduates at 20 per cent of the number of men. The cap was lifted in 1960 - though not removed from the statutes until 1987.

More school-leavers going to university meant that new colleges for women were needed. New Hall (now Murray Edwards) opened in 1954. Lucy Cavendish followed in 1965, first as a graduate college, and then admitting undergraduates over the age of 25 in 1972.

The first all-male colleges to go mixed were Churchill, Clare and King’s in 1972. The remaining men’s colleges followed suit, with all admitting women by 1988.