Hughes Hall, is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. It is often informally called Hughes, and is the oldest of the four Cambridge colleges which admit only mature students. The majority of Hughes Hall students are postgraduate, although nearly one-fifth of the student population comprises individuals aged 21 and above who are studying undergraduate degree courses at the University. It was originally founded in 1885 as the Cambridge Training College for Women Teachers, and its first principal was Miss Elizabeth Phillips Hughes. It began with 14 students... in a small house in Newnham called Croft Cottage. One of the first matriculants, Molly Thomas, recounted the experience of the first class of students in A London Girl of the 1880s . By 1895 the college moved to its present site, which was designed by the Cambridge architect William Fawcett. Expanding slowly over the next 40 years, the college finally became part of the University in November 1949 and was renamed Hughes Hall in honour of its first principal.
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