View source for Lady Literate in Arts

{{short description|Academic qualification at the University of St Andrews}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2019}}
A '''Lady Literate in Arts''' ('''LLA''') qualification was offered by the [[University of St Andrews]] in Scotland for more than a decade before women were allowed to graduate in the same way as men, and it became popular as a kind of [[external degree]] for women who had studied through correspondence, or by attendance at non-university classes. Although awarded as a [[diploma]], in terms of academic standard, it was equivalent to the [[Master of Arts]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Smith|first1=N. Kemp|title=The Scots Philosophical Club|journal=The Philosophical Quarterly|date=1950|volume=1|issue=1|pages=1–4 |doi=10.2307/2216495|jstor=2216495}}</ref>

Until 1892 women were not admitted to [[Scottish universities]], and the LLA was the nearest qualification to a degree which was open to women in the country, although the [[University of Edinburgh]] offered certificates recognising achievement in classes organised by the [[Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women]], and in [[Glasgow]], [[Queen Margaret College (Glasgow)|Queen Margaret College]] was offering a university-equivalent education and awards. To obtain an LLA candidates had to pass examinations at a university-approved centre, which might be in Scotland or outwith the country.

Formally established as the Lady Literate in Arts - LLA -  by 1877,<ref>{{cite web |title=University of St Andrews LLA |url=https://museumblog.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/2020/06/24/ladies-of-learning-a-brief-history-of-the-lady-literate-in-arts-diploma/ |publisher=University of St Andrews |access-date=11 April 2022 |quote=To walk upon the grass : the impact of the University of St Andrews' Lady Literate in Arts, 1877-1892}}</ref> even after 1892, the course continued to be popular with women who wanted to study for an [[arts degree]] without needing to attend one particular institution for three or four years. Thousands of women received an LLA before it was discontinued in the 1930s.

[[William Angus Knight]] (1836–1916), Professor of [[Moral Philosophy]] at St Andrews between 1876 and 1903, was a supporter of [[female education]] and the main force behind the university's introduction of the LLA diploma.

==Notable literate ladies==
[[File:Violetta Thurstan LLA in-her-Russian-Red-Cross-uniform during WW1.jpg|thumb|Violetta Thurstan in her Russian Red Cross uniform]]
The educationalist and headteacher [[Isabel Cleghorn]],<ref>{{Cite ODNB |title=The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography |date=2004-09-23 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/55564 |pages=ref:odnb/55564 |editor-last=Matthew |editor-first=H. C. G. |place=Oxford |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/55564 |access-date=2022-11-02 |editor2-last=Harrison |editor2-first=B.}}</ref> [[Helen Bannerman]], the children's writer,<ref name=esmith2014/> [[Sarah Bannister]], educationist and local politician<ref name=esmith2014>{{Cite journal |last=Smith |first=Elizabeth |date=2014 |title=TO WALK UPON THE GRASS: THE IMPACT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ST ANDREWS' LADY LITERATE IN ARTS, 1877-1892 |url=https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/bitstream/handle/10023/5570/ElisabethSmithPhDThesis.pdf.txt;jsessionid=BD2BBEE4C8332EF5519E779AF9A56E22?sequence=4 |journal=PhD Thesis |via=University of St Andrews}}</ref> and suffragette [[Margaret Nevinson]]<ref name=esmith2014/> all had LLAs, as did the wartime nursing heroine [[Violetta Thurstan]].

==References==
{{Reflist}}
*Susan Sellers, ''Mischievous to the Public Interest: The Lady Literate in Arts Diploma and the Admission of Women to the University of St Andrews'' in ''Launch-Site for English Studies'' (1997) ed. Robert Crawford
*R.N. Smart, ''Literate Ladies: a Fifty-Year Experiment'' in ''St Andrews University Alumnus Chronicle'' (1967)

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20061008081014/http://specialcollections.st-and.ac.uk/faq.htm Lady Literate in Arts]
*[http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/~www_spa/history/mp.html William Knight]

{{University of St Andrews}}
{{Academic degrees}}

[[Category:Higher education in Scotland]]
[[Category:Women's universities and colleges|*]]
[[Category:Women's universities and colleges in the United Kingdom|*]]
[[Category:University of St Andrews]]
[[Category:Distance education institutions based in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Women in Scotland]]
[[Category:1930s disestablishments in Scotland]]
[[Category:20th-century establishments in Scotland]]
[[Category:Liberal arts education]]