St Edmund's House was founded in 1896 by Henry Fitzalan Howard, the 15th Duke of Norfolk, and Baron Anatole von Hügel as an institution catering for Roman Catholic students at the University of Cambridge. After Catholic Emancipation, in particular after the repeal of Test Acts in 1873, students who were Roman Catholics were finally admitted as members of the university. In its early days the college functioned predominantly as a lodging house, or residential hall of residence, for students who were matriculated at other colleges. St Edmund's College (colloquially Eddie's) is one of the 31 constituent colleges of the University of Cambridge. It is the second oldest of the four Cambridge colleges oriented to mature students, which only accept students reading for either masters or doctorate degrees, or undergraduate degrees if they are aged 21 or older (the oldest being Hughes Hall and the others being Wolfson College and Lucy Cavendish College; additionally, Darwin College and Clare Hall admit graduate students only). Over three-quarters of St Edmund's students are studying towards higher degrees, usually the PhD, MPhil or LLM degrees.