Edinburgh Association for the University Education of Women

The ELEA was founded by Mary Crudelius, with Sarah Mair and others, in 1867 just before Sophia Jex-Blake started pressing Edinburgh University to admit medical students.

Jex-Blake's campaign, covered by the press in both London and Scotland, made Edinburgh a visible part of a nationwide movement demanding higher education opportunities for women.

In 1868 the university drew up plans to grant them certificates, although it would be another ten years before women could graduate with full degrees.

Is it to be borne that those of Scotland's daughters, be they few or be they many at present, who desire not to be behind any of their British sisters in culture, shall have to look for encouragement and aid to the Universities in England ... ?

Masson Hall was relocated in the 1960s when the University redeveloped its site in George Square, and the EAUEW was wound up in the 1970s.

From the 1870s, St. Andrews had offered women a special diploma qualification, like an external degree called the LLA: Lady Literate in Arts.