Two major political issues had arisen before 1865 and continued to be highly significant after that year. The first – the question of attaining a place in the House of Commons for a representative of the graduates of the University of London – had been on the agenda of the Graduates’ Committee since at least 1851, and had received the blessing of the leadership of both main political parties, in principle, in the early 1850s. The Senate took up the case after Convocation was established, and, as will be seen in Part IV, the seat was at last obtained in the Reform Bill of 1867, its first occupant being elected in the following year. The achievement of this objective could be celebrated by both Senate and Convocation as the desired result of their close collaboration.

The second issue – whether women should be admitted as candidates for the University’s examinations and degrees – was only fully resolved, by contrast, over a period of twenty-six years, which saw some bitter controversy. The initial stage of the story, concerning the attempts by two young women to obtain medical training, has been covered many times. The first attempt – by Jessie Meriton White – was made in 1856 and summarily dismissed. The second attempt, by Elizabeth Garrett, in 1862, was also unsuccessful but raised the temperature very considerably. The remainder of the struggle has been less fully narrated: it included the admission of women, from 1869, to a special examination similar to Matriculation.

For seven years after that, intensive argument and negotiation continued before there was a breakthrough. Passage of important legislation relating to medical registration of women, in 1876, led to a new argument as to whether women should be admitted first to medical degrees, or whether admission was only acceptable if it was offered for all the University’s offerings. The second view prevailed, but involved Senate and Convocation in some strained relations over constitutional proprieties. A new Supplemental Charter was approved in 1878, providing authority to open all the examinations of the University to women. The first women graduates took their degrees in 1880, and were admitted to Convocation in 1882.

No attempt is made in what follows to repeat or to extend what is already known of the wider social pressures for the advancement of educational and other opportunities for women, which were, of course, vital to the prospects of women wishing to enter universities.