In an unusual twist to the equality debate, one of Cambridge University’s last remaining women-only colleges is to open its doors to men.

From 2021, Lucy Cavendish College will admit both sexes and abolish its minimum entry age of 21.

The college was founded in 1965 to cater for older female students as part of an effort to boost the number of underprivileged students at the university. Now its entry criteria will change to allow ‘other under-represented groups’ to apply.

From 2021, Lucy Cavendish College (pictured) will admit both sexes and abolish its minimum entry age of 21

College president Professor Dame Madeleine Atkins said she wants to admit more ‘excellent students from non-traditional backgrounds, regardless of gender’.

She told Times Higher Education: ‘Supporting under-represented groups has always been in the college’s ethos – previously we were constrained to just one group. We’re simply adding more groups to what we’ve always done.’

She said mature women were no longer ‘severely under-represented’ at Cambridge and the college was changing to reflect that. It is expected to target candidates from deprived areas and ethnic minorities.

However, one Lucy Cavendish graduate called Dame Madeleine’s comments ‘patronising guff’.

She said: ‘Former students are furious and upset because they see the death of one of the last remaining protected spaces for women, not because they have nostalgic memories of midnight feasts in the mid-70s. Other colleges can address other forms of inequality in access.’

The decision leaves just two remaining women-only colleges in the UK – Newnham and Murray Edwards colleges, both part of Cambridge University. Pictured: Lucy Cavendish College

The college was founded as a ‘female academy for women graduates’ by three female Cambridge academics who were banned from holding fellowships due to the then rules of the university.

Its honorary fellows have included the actress Dame Judi Dench, broadcaster Anna Ford and crime writer PD James.

The decision leaves just two remaining women-only colleges in the UK – Newnham and Murray Edwards colleges, both part of Cambridge University.

Former single-sex colleges at Oxford University are now mixed, with the last one, St Hilda’s, admitting its first cohort of male students in 2008.