In 1870 university education for ladies was a new and dangerous idea. In 1871 Newnham College gave the establishment the finger and started life as a house for young women who had to travel to learn. Only 1,200m from King’s Parade, Newnham is a distinctive Victorian building set in huge gardens. Gone are the days when righteous young Newnhamites had to fight for equal status within the university – until 1948 the ladies of Cambridge had the dubious honour of receiving only a title of degree, or ‘BA tit’ – but Newnhamites still make their voices heard on the issues of the day. The College buzzes with enthusiasm and, ahem, love of learning. Students have some of the most diverse backgrounds of the colleges and a determination to get everything out of the Cambridge experience.
| Sex ratio (M:F): 0:100 |
Founded: 1871 |
| Full-time u’grads: 381 |
Part-time: 0 |
| Postgrads: 154 |
Mature: n/a |
State:private school: 55:45
|
Disabled: n/a |
| Academic ranking: 24 |
International: 13% |
Boilerhouse bar open Tuesday and Saturday evenings (nice and cheap), regular live bands, comedy nights, quizzes and pool/table football tournaments; classical concerts and clubbing in the College Hall (cap. 250); performing arts studio; pretty Old Labs performance space; choir; orchestra; biennial ball; garden parties; plays performed in theatre studio, hall or garden; posh pianos. JCR provides TV, video and DVD, vending machines, photocopier. Observatory; library (90,000 books, 50 study places with net access points); 35 computers, 24-hr access; JCR women’s library; art room. N-Vie college paper; Newbiles (Newnham-Bisexual-Lesbian) e-mail list; active JCR; fair trade stall twice-weekly. Footie; rugby; lacrosse; sports field on site; multi-gym; tennis and netball courts. Most students live in; assortment of room standards, some with antiques, all rooms have network points. Food is non-fatal, self-catering facilities are good; six student parking spaces. Nurse; chaplain; rooms for wheelchair users; free condoms and pregnancy tests; special finance tutor. Women’s, LGBT, Green, International and Ethnic Students' Officers. Scholarships and hardship funds; grants for books, sport and travel.
FAMOUS ALUMNI
Diane Abbott (Britain’s first black female MP, Lab); Joan Bakewell (broadcaster); Eleanor Bron, A S Byatt, Margaret Drabble, Katherine Whitehorn (writers); Germaine Greer (female eunuch, academic and unlikely Celebrity BB contestant); Patricia Hewitt MP (Lab); Dorothy Hodgkin (Chemistry Nobel laureate); Ann Mallalieu (Labour peer); Miriam Margolyes (actress); Julia Neuberger (female rabbi); Sylvia Plath (poet); Emma Thompson, Olivia Williams (actresses).