In 1871 a group of prominent Montréal women founded, on the model of the Ladies' Educational Association of Edinburgh, the Montreal Ladies' Educational Association. Their aim was to provide university level courses, with examinations and certificates, and with the support of McGill Principal J.W. Dawson, they secured Dawson himself and a number of other McGill professors as teachers. The standards of instruction were high, and the success and enthusiasm of the women students was an important moral factor in securing the admission of women to McGill in 1884. As the function of the Association came to be absorbed by McGill, it ceased operations in 1885.