BEDFORD COLLEGE

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26020, 25 January 1950, Page 2

BEDFORD COLLEGE

CENTENARY CELEBRATION Many amusing anecdotes of the early days of Bedford College in London, the first university college for women, were recalled at its recent centenary celebrations. Many of New Zealand’s women teachers have studied at this college. When the Ladies’ College in Bedford square, as it was first known, was started, it was thought improper to attend lectures by a male teacher unehaperoned. Therefore a body of “lady visitors” was enlisted, consisting of married women or elderly spinsters who were present at every class meeting, a practice not finally abandoned till 1893. Th2 professors, too, when on their way to the classrooms, were not permitted to pass through the central hall where the students congregated, but had to go down into the basement and come up on the other side of the hall. The establishment of scholarships was opposed on the grounds that competition might be injurious to the health of the girls. The celebrations included a dinner, an old students’ reception and an assembly and garden party, attended by Queen Mary, in the lovely college grounds in Regent’s Park. It is a far cry from the Ladies College of 100 years ago with its 68 pupils to the Bedford College of to-day, one of the important schools of the University of London with 837 students and 19 teaching departments.