Murray Edwards College is a women-only constituent college of the University of Cambridge. It was founded in 1954 as New Hall and renamed in 2008. The name honours a gift of £30 million by alumna Ros Edwards and her husband Steve, and the first President and woman Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, Rosemary Murray.
History
New Hall was founded in 1954, housing sixteen students in Silver Street where Darwin College now stands. Cambridge then had the lowest proportion of women undergraduates of any university in the United Kingdom and only two other colleges (Girton and Newnham) admitted female students.
In 1962, members of the Darwin family gave their home, "The Orchard", to the College. This new site was located on Huntingdon Road, about a mile from the centre of Cambridge. The architects chosen were Chamberlin, Powell and Bon, who are known for their design of the Barbican in London, and fundraising commenced. The building work began in 1964 and was completed by W. & C. French in 1965. The new college could house up to 300 students.
In 1967, one of the college's PhD students, Jocelyn Bell Burnell, a researcher in the university radio astronomy group, discovered the first four pulsars, leading to a Nobel Prize for her supervisor and ultimately, for Bell Burnell herself, a position as a research professor at the University of Oxford.
In 1975, the college's President Rosemary Murray became the first woman to hold the post of vice-chancellor of the University of Cambridge. Two subsequent presidents, Anne Lonsdale and Jennifer Barnes, have become pro-vice-chancellors of the University.
Following a 2005 donation of £30 million by alumna Rosalind Edwards () and her husband Steve Edwards to secure its future, in early 2008 New Hall was renamed Murray Edwards College, honouring the first President, Dame Rosemary Murray and the benefactors. There was some opposition to this as the new name incorporated a man's surname, despite the college being reserved for women students. Ros Edwards had attended the college in the 1980s and made a fortune with her partner when their software company Geneva Technology was sold to Convergys in 2001.
Men-only Cambridge colleges were converted into mixed-sex colleges in the 1970s and 1980s. Since the 2006 announcement that the University of Oxford's last remaining women-only college, St Hilda's, would also admit men, Cambridge is the only United Kingdom university that partially maintains a female-only student admissions policy, represented by Newnham, Murray Edwards, and until October 2021, Lucy Cavendish College. The fellowship and staff at Murray Edwards College are recruited from all genders. There is no bar to male students frequenting the college and many are taught there by Murray Edwards' fellows.
Arms and logo
New Hall received its Royal Charter in 1972. The Arms of the college are emblazoned as follows:
Sable a Dolphin palewise head downwards to the dexter in chief three Mullets fesswise a Bordure embattled Argent
In plain English, this means: on a black background, place the following features in silver. Vertically in the centre, place a dolphin with head downwards to the left. On top, place three stars horizontally across. Bordering the arms, place a square wave representing the battlements of a castle.
The black castellation round the arms marks the college's location on Castle Hill. The three stars are borrowed from the Murray coat of arms, while the heraldic dolphin symbolises a youthful spirit of exploration and discovery, and a kindly intelligence.
The college had designed a new logo to mark its transition from New Hall to Murray Edwards College. It was based on the design of the interior of the dining hall (the "Dome") and was called the 'spark'. However, on consultation with its alumnae, the college decided to continue to use its arms in official materials.