The college is still open to girls who attend only single courses, but the majority enter as regular students, and work either for a London degree or the alternative college course. Bedford has also added other departments of study to the ordinary curriculum. It has an art school, a training department for teachers, and a special hygiene course, for which certificates are conferred. And finally it has developed, as far as its accommodation will permit, into a residential college. The old-fashioned dormitory boarding accommodation has been abolished in favour of students’ rooms in the bed-study fashion so familiar at Newnham and Oxford, and the general management has been placed in the hands of a Principal. Miss Emily Penrose, the first to fill this post, has now become Principal of Holloway, and her place is taken by Miss Ethel Hurlbatt, late Warden of Aberdare Hall.
Bedford College, true to its undenominational principles, has never introduced religious instruction into its curriculum. It is not unnatural that a wish has been expressed in some quarters for a residential college, which should prepare its students for London degrees and at the same time take cognisance of their religious training. It was for this end that Westfield College at Hampstead was founded in 1882. Its benefactor was Miss Dudin Brown, who made over to trustees the sum of £10,000 ‘for the establishment of a college for the higher education of women on Christian principles.’ The Principal is Miss Maynard, one of the early students of Girton, who has introduced into Westfield many of the arrangements of the parent college. The two-room plan, which has found too few imitators, is the rule here. Inclusive fees, as at Girton, are £105 a year. The conditions for admission are similar. There are three entrance scholarships, open to girls who have passed the London Matriculation in Honours or in the first division.
The college began its work in hired houses at Hampstead, but building soon became necessary. It is pleasantly situated in that most attractive of the London suburbs, and combines some advantages of both town and country. Though it has no laboratories of its own, students can easily reach those of Bedford College to which they have access; and similarly it is easy to supply from London such teaching as cannot be undertaken by the resident staff. Westfield students take high places in the class lists, and it supplies an important addition to the London colleges.