is a women's college in the
University Of Cambridge . It was founded in 1954, at a time when Cambridge had the lowest proportion of women undergraduates of any university in the UK and when only two other colleges (
Girton and
Newnham ) could admit women students.
With the conversion of the last men-only colleges into mixed colleges in the 1970s and 80s, many people questioned whether New Hall would remain a women-only college (in fact there were rumours of a possible merger with
St Johns College in the 1980s). There appears to be more of a market for women-only colleges, however, particularly as the University as a whole still has a higher proportion of men than women, and a women-only college can provide some kind of escape from this male-dominated environment.
Many students choose to live at New Hall because they have a preference for an all-female environment, particularly if they are studying in departments which are strongly male-dominated (like physics and computer science). Some others are quite vocal about the fact that they did not want to be in a women-only college, but were put there by the Cambridge "pool" system because there were not enough places at their chosen college. However, New Hall's undergraduates often choose to stay on with the college during graduate studies, as they come to appreciate its laid-back atmosphere and friendly community. Although it is not as wealthy as the older colleges, New Hall offers free formal halls each week to graduate students and maintains a modest fund for graduate research.
