A NEW university college will be named in memory of North-East Victorian social reformer Josephine Butler.

Durham University will name its 16th residential college after the pioneer of women's education, a century after her death.

Josephine Butler College, off South Road, will be the university's first residential college in Durham since nearby Collingwood opened in 1972.

In the intervening years, the university has opened two colleges at its Queen's Campus, in Stockton.

Josephine Butler was a Northumberland-born writer, who married Durham University classics lecturer George Butler.

She fought for advances in female education opportunities, of which Durham was at the forefront, becoming one of the leading universities granting degrees to women in the late 19th Century.

Workers are well on with building the college, on the Howlands Farm site, alongside the recently opened premises for Ustinov College, formerly the Postgraduate Society.

A 400-bed self-catering college, it will have shared social facilities.

Its first principal will be Adrian Simpson, a senior lecturer specialising in mathematics education at Warwick University.

He said: "As with the other colleges, we hope it will be a major benefit, not just to the university and its students, but to the city of Durham and the wider community.

"In choosing to name it after Josephine Butler, the university is celebrating her ideals of equality and campaigning social justice, ideals we hope will be reflected in the development of the college right from the start."

The first students will be admitted to the mixed-sex college next year.