Newnham College, Cambridge passionately that equality could only be expressed by women doing the same courses as the men, on the same time-table. This meant that Girton attracted a much smaller population in its early years. But the Newnham Council held its ground, reinforced by the commitment of many of its members to educational reform generally and a wish to change some of the courses Cambridge was offering to its men. In 1948 Newnham, like Girton, attained the full status of a college of the university. The university as an institution at first took no notice of these women and arrangements to sit
University of Cambridge gave graduates from Cambridge the right to teach "everywhere in Christendom". After Cambridge was described as a "studium generale" in a letter by Pope Nicholas IV in 1290, and confirmed as such in a bull by Pope John XXII in 1318, it became common for researchers from other European medieval universities to visit Cambridge to study or to give lecture courses. The colleges at the University of Cambridge were originally an incidental feature of the system. No college is as old as the university itself. The colleges were endowed fellowships of scholars. There were also institutions without endowments, called hostels.