The new Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music thus formed offered musical qualifications to external candidates from anywhere in the British Empire who could meet its rigorous standards. 1,141 candidates entered for the first examinations in 1890, despite the high entry fee of two guineas. The income helped both institutions to keep their own student fees at an affordable level, which enabled the college to make a full three-year course of study its basic standard. Because of the thorough training thus offered, the high standard of playing of the college's students quickly became known. Leading musicians willingly appeared with the College orchestra, including Joseph Joachim and Hans Richter. Manns, Eugène Ysaÿe and Bernard Shaw praised it strongly. The historian David Wright says of Grove's legacy: "The founding of the RCM in 1883 clearly represents the major turning point for musical training in Britain. The new attitudes it espoused stemmed directly from the professionalizing ethos that modernized and transformed Victorian society."