Britain's only college for orthodox Jewish women has received a £1,000 grant from Barnet Council.

Students at the MST College in Hendon Way, Hendon, refuse to be taught in a mixed-sex environment and without the college they would be forced to study at home.

News of the grant was welcomed this week by the college's executive director, Olivia Jospeh, a former student.

"I don't know of anywhere else that provides the kind of training we do," she said. "Our raison d' tre is to provide women with the opportunity to learn that they wouldn't otherwise have."

The cash was awarded under the council's priority of broadening learning or career skills and has been labelled a one-off.

Mrs Joseph, who intends to invest the money in advertising, said: "All these women have been schooled in single sex institutions -- for them to go into a mixed-sex environment would be too alien."

The college specialises in teacher training and degree courses and hopes to produce its own accredited courses in time for the Millennium. All topics are taught simultaneously with Jewish thought on the subject.

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