On Friday 12th March, Homerton College officially became a self-governing, full College of the University of Cambridge.

Sir David Harrison, the Chairman of the Homerton Board of Trustees, formally handed the Royal Charter to the Principal and Fellows of the College last week.

In the 17th Century, Homerton College developed in Homerton in east London, and the college moved to Cambridge in 1894. At this point, the Congregational Board of Education purchased the estate of a failing Cavendish College, and Homerton became a mixed teacher-training college.

In 1976, under the headship of Principal Alison Shrubsole, Homerton became an Approved Society of the University of Cambridge, and its students were matriculated to take the B.Ed degree in the Education Tripos.

The Regent House accepted the proposal to merge Homerton College with the rest of the university in 2000. This involved allowing the college to offer a wider range of Tripos subjects. In 2001, Homerton admitted its first non-education Tripos students, and the B.Ed degree was replaced by a three-year B.A course in Education, followed by a year-long Post Graduate Certificate of Education.

Now, Homerton has 600 undergraduate members, and offers its students all of the Cambridge Triposes, except medicine and veterinary medicine. It also has 500 postgraduate members, of which the majority take the PGCE. As such, Homerton remains the foremost teacher-training college in England.

Dr Katy Pretty, the Principal, who also holds the posts of Chairman of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for International Strategy in the University, commented: “We are delighted to have finally reached this stage of recognition by the University and the Privy Council, which marks the College's coming-of-age after 115 years in Cambridge. We are proud of our long tradition in Education and look forward to taking a full-part in Collegiate Cambridge.”

Niall Quinn, a first year engineering student from Homerton College, however, did not feel that this recent development was significant. He told Varsity, “To be honest, the only difference will be that I can completely rebuke people who claim that Homerton is not a real College.” He added, “There will probably also be a big party at the end of the year.”