Times are a' changing at Oxford University, it seems. But not everyone supports the drift away from the tradition of single-sex education.
The last female-only college at Oxford faces extinction as its governing body prepares to decide this week on the future of the 113-year-old St Hilda's College. The question is simple: should male undergraduates be admitted to the college that was founded by Dorothea Beale, the passionate advocate of women's education?
More than half of the governing body of St Hilda's are understood to want change, and the majority of undergraduates are also in favour of admitting boys into the girls-only club. But perhaps most surprisingly, the vast majority of St Hilda's graduates are not backing the proposal.
In February 77% of undergraduates voted in favour of allowing men to become fellows, while 55% were happy to have them at the college as students. Just a month later a ballot among graduates of the college went the opposite way, with more than 80% voting against allowing male students.
St Hilda's students are affectionately known as Hildabeasts, a reputation the college earned back in its stern Victorian beginnings. But St Hilda's is not alone when it comes to single-sex study. Three female-only colleges remain at Cambridge.
So, is St Hilda's a "unique bastion of feminism" as it is often called, or simply an archaic tradition serving only to reinforce the existence of inequality and stop women breaking through the infamous glass ceiling?
