University of Cambridge doctorate or MA degree. For many years only male students were enrolled into the university. The first colleges for women were Girton College (founded by Emily Davies) in 1869 and Newnham College in 1872 (founded by Anne Clough and Henry Sidgwick), followed by Hughes Hall in 1885 (founded by Elizabeth Phillips Hughes as the Cambridge Teaching College for Women), Murray Edwards College (founded by Rosemary Murray as New Hall) in 1954, and Lucy Cavendish College in 1965. The first women students were examined in 1882 but attempts to make women full members of the university did not succeed until 1948.
Murray Edwards College, Cambridge Murray Edwards College, Cambridge Murray Edwards College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was founded as "New Hall" in 1954 but, unlike many other colleges, it was founded without a significant endowment and thus did not bear a benefactor's name. This situation changed in 2008 following a donation of £30 million by alumna Ros Edwards ("née" Smith) and her husband Steve Edwards to secure the future of the College as a college at the University of Cambridge in perpetuity. In recognition of this, New Hall was renamed Murray Edwards College - honouring the first President,