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Hilda Brown ("Sex and the Hildabeast", THES , March 7) writes that "the five (Oxford) women's colleges played a heroic role in advancing higher education for women in the 20th century", but it is misleading to see this as due mainly to women, single-sex colleges and Oxford.

Cambridge was the pioneer in women's higher education in the 1870s - Newnham and Girton colleges depended on men for their inception, continuance and quality.

Nigel Probert
Porthmadog