New Hall, Cambridge

New Hall is a women-only college in the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1954, at a time when Cambridge had the lowest proportion of women undergraduates of any university in the UK and when only two other colleges (Girton and Newnham) could admit women students.

[edit] Background

With the conversion of the last men-only colleges into mixed colleges in the 1970s and 80s, many people questioned whether New Hall would remain a women-only college. There appears to be more of a market for women-only colleges, however, particularly as the University as a whole still has a higher proportion of men than women. New Hall was founded in 1954, housing sixteen students in Silver Street where Darwin College now stands. By 1962, thanks to the generosity of members of the Darwin family who gave their family home, the Orchard, to the project, the College had a new site on Huntingdon Road, about a mile 'up the hill' from the centre of Cambridge. The architects, Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, had been chosen and funds were being collected. Building began in 1964 and the new college was completed in 1965. It could house up to 300 students.

New Hall is home to the second largest collection of women's art in the world. The Collection can be regarded as unique in this country and is visited, consulted, written about and photographed by art historians and others excited by the talent and originality displayed by so many contemporary women artists.

Both fellows and students value the college's creation of a unique community that is liberal, outgoing, relaxed but academically adventurous. New Hall's undergraduates often choose to stay on with the college during graduate studies, as they come to appreciate its laid-back atmosphere and friendly community. Although it is not as wealthy as the older colleges, New Hall offers free formal halls each week to graduate students and maintains a modest fund for graduate research.

[edit] Alumnae

Jocelyn Bell Burnell, CBE, now Research Professor, University of Oxford, formerly researcher in the university radio astronomy group who discovered the first four pulsars
Barbara Stocking, Director of Oxfam
Dr Julia King, CBE, Vice-Chancellor, University of Aston, Birmingham
Joanna MacGregor, concert pianist
Tilda Swinton, actress
Sue Perkins, comedian
Lisa Burke, TV weather presenter
Claudia Winkleman
Mishal Husain, BBC World News Anchor
Frances Vernon, novelist