Saturday, August 16, 2008

By lady-like degrees

Ruskin thought that, by-and-large-and-on-the-whole, science was not a suitable subject for inclusion in the curriculum for a girl’s education

Until at least the 1960s the University of London offered both a BSc and a BA in Social Sciences. As far as I am aware, the curriculum was identical, students were taught in the same classes, & took the same exams.

In those days of matriculation, one difference was that, if you wanted to sit for a degree in the Faculty of Arts, you had to have Latin O level.

It may have been a myth, but the popular explanation among students was that some Headmistresses & parents did not think it suitable, or even decent, for a young lady to be a BSc, but others thought it ridiculous to make a qualification in Latin a sine qua non