What does LLA stand for?
Lady Literate in Arts. The LLA was a ‘distance learning’ qualification for women, introduced to allow them access to University education in the days before they were admitted as students to the University itself. Students studied at colleges local to them, and sat examinations set by the University, at centres all over the UK and in many places throughout the world. Many thousands of women participated in the LLA scheme, which was so popular that it survived for 50 years, into the 1930s – long after women were admitted as full-time students. For further information, see the article ‘Literate Ladies: a Fifty-Year Experiment’ by R.N. Smart in St Andrews University Alumnus Chronicle, 1967, vol.
