 Female students were admitted to the college for the first time in 1987 ; until then it had been single sex . Since this time the college has become fully mixed , with undergraduate numbers expanding to nearly seven hundred . Expansion caused a strain on college numbers , however , and in 2004 the college was unable to provide accommodation for all of its fresher students for the first time in its history . Following the foundation of Josephine Butler , Durham 's first new college to be opened since 1972 , pressure from the university to take on additional students has lessened , and undergraduate numbers have been intentionally reduced in recent years . 
