Page:Some Account of a Proposed New College for Women.djvu/3

 will best explain how it is intended to supply the want we have been considering.

With regard to the admission of students, an entrance examination will keep up the general level of the studies, and exclude those who are not in earnest, as well as those who ought to be in the schoolroom; indeed, as regards the age of the students, it is believed that it will be somewhat above that of the undergraduates at the Universities.

The discipline and internal arrangements will be under the direction of resident ladies, who will be to the students in loco parentis. As the students in general will be drawn to the college by a real desire for improvement, the maintenance of order will not be difficult to attain without vexatious checks and regulations. Each student will have a small sitting-room to herself. This arrangement, affording opportunity for a certain amount of solitude—so important an agent in the formation of character—and sparing the student the strain on her faculty of concentration, which must be exercised when studying in company with others, will be one of the real advantages enjoyed in the college life, while the opportunities of congenial companionship will be a safeguard against any temptation to undue isolation. A short service, answering to family prayers, will be conducted by the head of the college, and the students will attend the parish church, but no constraint will be placed on Nonconformists in regard to attendance at prayers or church.

It has been decided to locate the college in the country. The fresh, pure air, the quiet and the opportunity of country rambles and out-door exercise, will be of real benefit to those who spend their life chiefly in study. Besides which, the constant interruptions, from which it would be impossible for young ladies of eighteen and upwards to be free in London, will be avoided. The college year, which will occupy rather less than six months, broken into terms of about eight weeks' duration, ought to be free from distraction; time enough is left to the students during the vacations for going into society, under the guardianship of their mothers. The college is meant to supplement, not to supersede, the home, which, doubtless, will be appreciated by the students all the more after their temporary absences.

With regard to the course of study, it is intended to apply to the University of Cambridge for admission to the examination for degrees, and the requirements of those examinations will be met by the college curriculum. But these examinations will not be compulsory, and a certain amount of choice will be allowed in the plan of study, which will exclude no subject that is regarded as suitable for a lady's education by competent authorities. The instruction will be given by women or men, according to circumstances, the only test being that of fitness. It is hoped that the institution will become a living branch, a dependency of Cambridge; it will be connected, as far as possible, with that University; it