Letter to the Chancellor of the Otago University

10 March 1891

Hocken Library. Otago University Medical School Personnel, Autograph Letters from 1872. MS-1689/001

Unpublished

At an Otago University Council meeting on 8 August 1871, the motion was ratified ‘that women be admitted to all classes, and allowed to compete for all certificates, equivalent to degrees, conferred by the University of Otago.’ Although this did not mean actual degrees, it was an enlightened step, and far more forward thinking than any University in the United Kingdom at that time. On 10 March 1891, having already passed the preliminary examinations, Emily Siedeberg wrote to the Chancellor requesting admission to the Medical School. She was the University’s first woman medical student.