Why don't the female only colleges at Cambridge offer Education as a course?

[henriettahatt]

Hi,

DD2 is aspiring to Cambridge, and likes the idea of a female only college.

She wants to study Education, but neither Newnham or Murray Edwards offer it.

We're intrigued as to why this might be; is there some history, or simply down to staffing? DD can't be the only one who would prefer a female only college.

Is it just a coincidence that both the colleges not offering this course are female only?

Thanks

I think it is a coincidence as there are several who do not offer education. With the education faculty being based out near Homerton it would be a long way away to be based at these two. If you haven't seen this already this may be helpful to you.
www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

Do most of the other colleges offer it? I thought most didn't.

When I went —in the 90s— a few years ago now, only Homerton offered education at undergraduate level. (And the one person I knew who was doing post grad teacher training was at Homerton - but one is not a very big sample!)

Sounds like some other colleges have chosen to start doing it too but not all. (My old one isn’t.)

If she wants women only, then Homerton will be very female dominated. However, I’m not sure you get the full “Cambridge experience” at Homerton the way you do in other colleges.

From website.

Colleges
Available at all Colleges except Corpus Christi, Girton, King’s, Murray Edwards, Newnham, Peterhouse, St Catharine’s, Sidney Sussex, Trinity and Trinity Hall (Education, English, Drama and the Arts track not available at Emmanuel)

Ah ok, thank you, we didn't realise that only Homerton has offered it until recently and others were now starting to, that makes more sense.

Is Homerton really too far out? We're going to have a wander around Cambridge in a few weeks, and it doesn't look that far?

This is because the vast majority are at Homerton.

Even at PGCE level, where your college barely matters, three-quarters of our course were at Homerton. I do remember them offering female only halls if that was your issue.

It is quite far out and the road for cycling is much busier. I would have a look at Downing, Christs, Pembroke maybe.

@Lovecatsanddogs

It is quite far out and the road for cycling is much busier. I would have a look at Downing, Christs, Pembroke maybe.

According to the Cambridge interactive graph generator, each of those only offers one or two places for education.

www.undergraduate.study.cam.ac.uk/apply/statistics

Isn't the faculty of education near Homerton, so from that perspective it's the other colleges which are distant?

The education faculty / Homerton is on completely the other side of Cambridge to Murray Edward’s so the distance between the two is pretty far. Girton and Homerton are both generally considered “far out” colleges and most other colleges are much closer together, as well as closer to faculties and to the city centre.

I did my PGCE in Cambridge (many years ago, so things may well be different now). Some of the school placements were over an hour away. Bus transport was provided, but it left early in the morning (7ish) from Homerton. I was at a College on the far side of Cambridge, which meant I had to go racing across town at 6.30am on a clapped out old bike to catch the bus, and do the reverse journey in the dark in the evening when I was knackered. It was do-able, but in retrospect I probably would have chosen somewhere a bit closer!

Homerton isn't really far out - it just isn't central. It takes about 20-25 minutes to walk from Homerton into town.