Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge

The college was founded in 1965 by female academics of the University of Cambridge who believed that the university offered too few and too restricted opportunities for women as either students or academics. Its origins are traceable to the Society of Women Members of the Regent House who are not Fellows of Colleges (informally known as the Dining Group) which in the 1950s sought to provide the benefits of collegiality to its members who, being female, were not college fellows.[5] At the time there were only two women's colleges in Cambridge, Girton and Newnham, insufficient for the large and growing numbers of female academic staff in the university.[6]

The college was named in honour of Lucy Caroline Cavendish, a pioneer of women's education and the great aunt of one of its founders, Margaret Braithwaite.[4] First formally recognised as the Lucy Cavendish Collegiate Society, it moved to its current site in 1970, received consent to be called Lucy Cavendish College in 1986, and gained the status of a full college of the university by Royal Charter in 1997.[7]

The first president of the college, from 1965 to 1970, was Anna McClean Bidder, one of the founding members of the Dining Group and a zoologist specialising in cephalopod digestion;[6] this accounts for the presence of the nautilus shell in the college coat of arms.[8] She was succeeded by Kate Bertram until 1979, Phyllis Hetzel (Lady Bowden),[9] Dame Anne Warburton (the first female British ambassador in 1976), Baroness Perry of Southwark, Dame Veronica Sutherland, Janet Todd and Jackie Ashley.

The current and 9th President of Lucy Cavendish is Madeleine Atkins, who took up the post in 2018.

In March 2019 Lucy Cavendish announced its intention to begin admitting both women and men from the standard university age, with effect from October 2021. This change followed a consultation of the College's community, leading to an "in principle vote" of the Lucy Cavendish Governing Body. The College gave as its primary reason for the change "to grow graduate and undergraduate numbers to support the University and the other colleges in making more places available for excellent students from under-represented backgrounds."[10][11]

In line with Lucy Cavendish's new commitment to widening participation, on 4 December 2019 the college appointed its first male fellows. The list included Mr Christopher Fowell (Consultant Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon), Prof Ed Bullmore (Professor of Psychiatry), Dr Jurgen Becque (design engineer) and The Reverend Canon Adrian Daffern (Vicar of the University Church).[12]

For the first few years of the college's existence it occupied rooms first in Silver Street and then in Northampton Street. In 1970 it moved to its current site on the corner of Madingley Road and Lady Margaret Road, near Westminster College and St John's College, which had provided some of the land.[13]

In 1991 the college bought Balliol Croft, a neighbouring house to its grounds and former home of the economist Alfred Marshall and his wife Mary Paley Marshall, with whom he wrote his first economics textbook. The building was renamed Marshall House in his honour and used for student accommodation until 2001 when it was converted back to its original layout and used as the President's Lodge.[14] Meanwhile, the majority of the college's buildings, including Warburton Hall and the library, were completed in the 1990s.[13]

Lucy Cavendish College coat of arms

Lucy Cavendish has over 400 students, approximately 40% of whom are undergraduates and 60% graduates.[15] Students originate from over 60 different countries, making it a distinctly international college. The college website states that "Students from every corner of the UK mix with students from around the world. Students with 'Access' qualifications interact with students who have studied for A-levels and the International Baccalaureate. Former bankers, singers, journalists and police officers mix with recent graduates of universities from around the world. Women come at any age to study any subject offered by the University."[16] The average age of students in the college is 22.

Lucy Cavendish students are also called "Lucians".

The overall percentage of 2.1s and first class degrees was 88% in 2016/17, increasing to 92% in 2017/18.

Dame Judi Dench is an Honorary Fellow of the college

This stone was laid by Queen Margrethe of Denmark in December 1993

• Noeleen Heyzer, Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Director of UNIFEM
• Rosena Allin-Khan, Member of Parliament for Tooting since 2016.[17]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lucy Cavendish College, Cambridge.

• Official college website
• Admissions info for Lucy Cavendish College
• Lucy Cavendish College Students' Union
• History of Lucy Cavendish College