 Women were permitted to attend some lectures in college from 1876, and in 1877, the college set up a series of examinations in theology, which could be taken by women as well as men.In 1901, Gertrude von Petzold graduated from her training at Manchester College to become a minister in the Unitarian church- the first woman to be qualified as a minister in England.This was possible despite the fact that Oxford University did not formally accept female students or award them degrees until 1920 because Manchester College was at that time associated with the University of London, which in 1878 became the first UK university to award degrees to women.