There is no need to dwell on the success of this new departure. The London degrees have been eagerly sought by women, and they have won distinguished places in the class lists. Among its graduates London numbers over fifty female M.A.’s, six D.Sc.’s, one D.Lit., to say nothing of many hundred B.A. and B.Sc., as well as all the medical degrees. Class lists show no special division into masculine and feminine studies, since women have won high honours in classics, and men in modern languages. Even on Presentation-Day special allusions to the lady-graduates are seldom made in the speeches; it is no longer considered a matter of surprise that women should hold their own intellectually. The London class lists with their rigid equality have proved to demonstration the equality of the sexes as far as concerns the domain of examination. And at the particular moment when this was done, it was the greatest service that could be rendered to the cause of women’s education, since it settled once and for all the question of making special conditions for them.
But throwing open the examinations and degrees of London was only an indirect assistance to their education, since the University examines all who come, but asks no questions as to how or where they gained their teaching. There was one institution already in existence which was only waiting for this new impulse to enlarge the scope of its work. Bedford College had been gradually developing from humble beginnings into an institution of first-class educational importance. In 1874 it had been removed from Bedford Square to its present premises in York Place, Baker Street, and here it has been gradually expanding, adding another house, building on at the back, supplying now one laboratory now another, until it has reached its present condition of efficiency, taking its place as the leading women’s college of London. Its success is probably due to the progressive action of its council, ever ready to realise new needs and meet each fresh demand as it arose. Recognising the transformation which the opening of the London degrees must effect in women’s education, they at once proceeded to open classes in the subjects of the examinations. At the first Matriculation Examination to which women were admitted, five Bedford College students presented themselves, and all took Honours. In due course classes for B.A. work were added, then B.Sc., then M.A., and in all these Bedford College students acquitted themselves well. The college had now won an honourable place among university colleges, and in 1894 it was included among the list of those entitled to a share of the annual grant of £15,000 to university colleges in Great Britain. From this source it received £700, since increased to £1200, and it now receives also an annual grant of £500 from the London Technical Education Board, for the further equipment of the laboratories and development of practical work in science. This is a speciality of Bedford College. Its laboratories for biology, botany, chemistry, geology, physiology, and physics meet every requirement.