of degrees, staff and members of Convocation were still required to be members of the Church of England until the Universities Tests Act 1871. However, "dissenters" were able to attend Durham and then sit the examinations for degrees of the University of London, which were not subject to any religious test. Following the grant of a supplemental charter in 1895 allowing women to receive degrees of the university, the Women's Hostel (St Mary's College from 1919) was founded in 1899.
=== The federal university, 1909–1963 ===
The Newcastle division of the university, which comprised both Armstrong College (named after Lord Armstrong) and Durham University College of Medicine, quickly grew to outnumber the Durham colleges, despite the addition of two independent Anglican foundations: St Chad's College (1904) and St John's College (1909). A parliamentary bill proposed in 1907 would have fixed the seat of the university in Durham for only ten years, allowing the Senate to choose to move to Newcastle after this. This was blocked by John Taylor, MP for Chester-le-Street, with the support of graduates of the Durham colleges, until the bill was modified to establish a federal university with its seat fixed in Durham, as well as greater representation for the graduates (including that the chancellor would be appointed by convocation, as remains the case) and the abolition of ad eundem degrees. This reform also removed the university from the authority of the Dean and Chapter of Durham Cathedral, who had been the governors of the university since its foundation. Thirty years after this, the Royal Commission of 1937 recommended changes in the constitution of the federal university, resulting in the merger of the two colleges in the Newcastle Division to form King's College. The vice-chancellorship alternated between the Warden of the Durham Division and the Rector of the Newcastle Division, the chief academic and administrative officers of the two divisions under the 1937 statutes. The executive head of Durham University continues …
