St Benet’s Hall, the last remaining single-sex Hall in the University of Oxford, has plans to accept female students in the future.
St Benet’s was originally founded by Ampleforth Abbey in order to allow its monks to study for degrees at the university.
St Hilda’s was the last all-female Oxford college to go co-educational, making the change in 2008, whilst Cambridge still has three all female colleges: Newnham, Murray Edwards and Lucy Cavendish. However, these colleges are not single-sex for religious reasons, and they are also Colleges rather than Permanent Private Halls.
However, the issue for St Benet’s is rather the fact that it is not canonically permitted to accept woman as undergraduates because they would have to live in the same building as the monks. It is an obligation for all Colleges and PPHs to provide housing for Freshers. There are currently six resident monks, four of whom are studying.
St Benet’s are looking into building another hall of accommodation to get around this problem. Professor Jeanrond, Master of St Benet’s, said that the new building would help build up St Benet’s capacity in order to make it more like other Oxford colleges. There are also plans to upgrade the existing building, which can currently accommodate twenty five students.
Another issue that would arise from having more people in St Benet’s is that the Hall is currently the only college to have a “common table,” where tutors and students eat supper together. More students would mean that they would need to have two sittings – or buy another table. This would erode one of the traditions that has been at the heart of St Benet’s culture since its foundation. The PPH is not permitted to increase the number of undergraduates, so having more women students would necessarily involve taking fewer male students. However, it would increase the capacity for graduate students: as it is, the Hall’s policy is currently that female graduate students may attend St Benet’s provided that they are living out.
Although these plans are generally regarded as a positive development by current students, Johan Trovik, St Benet’s JCR President, does not think that the lack of women is an imminent problem. He commented, “I’m very happy at St Benet’s!” and pointed out that on last year’s student baromenter “we ranked highest of all Oxford colleges on (amongst other things) overall experience and being a ‘good place to be’!”
He went on to explain, “As all other Oxford colleges St Benet’s has its own distinct tradition and idiosyncrasies. That we’re currently an all male college however, does not I think affect the satisfaction rate significantly either way. I’m happy that the Hall now is working on improving our infrastructure so that we will be able to extend our offer of a unique sense of community of learning and friendship to female students as well whilst continue to respect our student monks’ monastic requirements.”
Although women are not allowed to live on site, Johan added, “I can assure you, we’re already very welcoming to female guests!”
