A Benedictine permanent private hall that is currently the last male-only undergraduate body at Oxford University is seeking funds for new premises in preparation for the admission of female students for the first time.
St Benet’s Hall is hoping to buy a house in Oxford owned by the Society of the Sacred Heart, which is planning to withdraw from the city as part of a reorganisation of the order.
At the moment the property, which has space for 25 student rooms, is lived in by three sisters of the order and is being run as a hostel for postgraduates and mature students.
Last year St Benet’s, which is overseen by Ampleforth Abbey in North Yorkshire, voted to admit women students for the first time and decided to accept female post-graduates with immediate effect. The last single-sex college at Oxford was the women-only St Hilda’s, which started admitting men in 2008.
St Benet’s was unable, however, to accept women as undergraduates at its current premises due to canon law and the fact that Benedictine monks live there. Consequently extra accommodation was sought.
The Society of the Sacred Heart, which came to Oxford in 1929 so that sisters could attend the university, would like to sell to St Benet’s as it would enable the continuation of the order’s original educational vision.
Sister Jane Maltby, Provincial of the Society of the Sacred Heart in England and Wales said: “Although we are sad to be leaving Oxford after over 80 years of supporting women’s higher education there, the Benedictine spirit of community and commitment to education will further the aspirations we have always striven to achieve.”
Professor Werner Jeanrond, Master of St Benet’s, said the hall is looking to raise funds to purchase the building, which is likely to be millions of pounds.
The master added that the new building would provide accommodation for both female and male students, offices for the hall as well as a flat for himself and his family.
St Benet’s, founded by Ampleforth Abbey to offer monks Oxford degrees, has an undergraduate body of between 45 and 50 and admits around 18 students each year. The Abbot of Ampleforth, Cuthbert Madden, is chairman of St Benet’s trust, which in turn is a subsidiary of the abbey’s charitable trust.
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