Caroline Freeman (c.1856 – 16 August 1914) was a teacher, school principal and owner, and the first female graduate of the University of Otago, New Zealand.

[8] Freeman's studies were always part-time and never easy - she had a seven-mile walk from her home in Green Island to the university, for example, and this eventually took its toll on her health and she moved into rented rooms in town.

Freeman was capped as Otago's first woman graduate on 27 August 1885, achieving a Bachelor of Arts degree after seven years of study.

[9] The graduation ceremony was a great celebration of her achievement; the audience clapped, cheered,[5] sang and threw bouquets onto the stage.

[1] Dr William Brown, speaking at the graduation ceremony,[3] said the following about Caroline: "I cannot conclude without a word of congratulation to Miss Freeman.

"[5] In 1886, in Dunedin, Freeman opened her own school, Girton College - the name was taken from that of an educational facility for women at Cambridge University, England.

[1] The Christchurch school was a large building with a stage, with imported casts for models for drawing classes, a 2,000 volume library and Yagg's anatomical studies of the human body.

In 1912, they put the school in the capable hands of Mabel Brown and left for England in the hope that Freeman might recover her health.

Caroline Freeman sought to resume control of the Christchurch school and Mabel Brown left, taking a number of the girls with her.

But ... the look from the keen frank blue eyes of our new mistress ... put us on our mettle .... She made us believe that we wanted to work, that knowledge was the finest power on earth ... that to become well-behaved, cultured, kindly women was our one ambition in life ... She led us to follow her breathlessly through a world of new things .... History was an interesting story; literature ... laughter and tears combined; arithmetic had a reason for its existence; geography was a journey over the delightful parts of the world.

As to English, our own language of our forefathers, she spurred our enthusiasm and our loyalty as she proudly pointed out its origin and told us its romantic story ....On her gravestone, at Linwood Cemetery, Christchurch, Freeman is recalled as 'the beloved teacher and guide of many of New Zealand's girls'.