| Description | This sequence comprises files of correspondence arranged in alphabetical order by name of correspondent containing letters to Jane Johnston Milne and her successor as Senior Tutor to Women Students, Nancy Macfarlane, as well as some copy correspondence from Milne and Macfarlane. Most of the correspondence relates to the role of Senior Tutor to Women Students, but there is also some correspondence relating to women and men students in the French department whom Milne had a responsibility for, particularly concerning placements in France during the term abroad that students undertook
The content of the correspondence discusses financial assistance for students, including refugee students, and includes letters between Milne and University officials, local trusts, the Board of Education, county education committees and, for refugee students, organisations like the International Student Service (ISS), British Council, Midland Bureau for Educated Women, and the British Federation of University Women (BFUW). There is also correspondence offering advice to women students on careers, including copies of testimonials and references, and some recommendations of individual students or graduates for teaching posts in schools or posts in other organisations. Other correspondence discusses recruitment to the University of Birmingham; accommodation for women students; and the physical and emotional health of women students and other personal and welfare matters. There is occasional correspondnece about disciplinary matters and academic performance.
There is significant correspondence between Milne and Miss Hammond, Head of the Women's Education Department, concerning the academic performance and general health and welfare of women students in that department. A large number of women students were training to become teachers during the period between the 1920s and the 1940s, either on a four year or two year course, or taking a diploma following a degree qualification
The correspondence spans the period from 1926 to the early 1950s. Correspondence from around 1947 onwards is written from and to Nancy Macfarlane |