ABSTRACT
Timing and opportunism is always a key item in a successful venture, and an appetite for experiment seemed buoyant in Cambridge. Girton College and Newnham College had been established in permanent buildings in Cambridge by the mid-1870s and, as we have seen, the 1881 Grace had formally admitted women to Tripos examinations (albeit not awarding them degrees). The Syndicate for the Training of Teachers had been established by Oscar Browning in 1878, which provided an examining body for teachers in Cambridge. Moreover, two new educational foundations, Selwyn and Cavendish Colleges, were recognized as public hostels for non-collegiate students, so there seemed every hope that a similar hostel for student-teachers might come to be recognized in time.
