Women-only Cambridge college to admit men from 2021

What patronising guff from Madeleine Atkins. Former students are furious and upset because they see the death of one of the last remaining protected spaces for women, not because they have nostalgic memories of midnight feasts in the mid-70s. Other colleges can address other forms of inequality in access. Lucy was the only place that could address the particular needs of mature women returning to study. Now, it's nothing. She has destroyed something precious and irreplaceable.

Women: we want half of everything that men have. Also women: We don't want to share half of what we have with men.

I agree completely with the posters above. I am a male Cambridge alumnus but think it is very sad that something special is being lost there now.

In times of pussy-grabbing politicians, the persistent gender pay gap, and the #metoo movement, it is a questionable choice to take away safe spaces which women have long fought for. And yet, Lucy Cavendish College Cambridge, the last mature women's college in the UK, wants to do exactly that. Without holding an actual conversation with alumnae and students, the college decided to open up for the admission of men in 2012, as well as lowering admissions age to the usual 18 years of age. The college justifies this move by saying its mission of providing access to under-represented groups such as women and mature students has been accomplished, effectively abolishing itself. This flies in the face of the experience of higher education (and life) of most alumnae, as well as mere statistics which prove the lack of women in top-level jobs, including academia. After the introduction of tripled student fees in 2010, the college showed no radical action to assist students meet the new challenges, making a mockery of its current claim to widen access to under-privileged groups regardless of gender. We are beyond belief shocked and grieved. Please help us be heard!