Prosperity did not come all at once to Aberystwyth. It had at first to struggle against two great evils: lack of funds, and the insufficient preliminary training of its students. Appeal was made for Government help in both directions, and the result of frequent representations was the appointment, by the Lord President of the Council, of a departmental committee, to inquire into the whole state of Welsh education. In 1881 this committee reported that a case had been made out for Government aid to both secondary and higher education in Wales, and recommended the establishment of two colleges, one in North and one in South Wales, and the eventual foundation of a Welsh University. A grant of £2500, afterwards increased to £4000, was at once made to Aberystwyth; in 1883 the South Wales College was founded at Cardiff, and in the following year the Northern College was begun at Bangor, each receiving an annual grant of £4000. Both, from the first, opened their doors to women. For the first ten years the colleges directed their courses of study towards the degrees of the University of London. Their students did well, but the desire for their own University and their own degrees never faded from the minds of Welshmen. A few eager spirits met again and again in conference, then followed meetings of educationalists all over the principality, and in 1891 the main lines of a university were laid down by public conference, details were discussed by a representative committee, referred back to the conference, then to the colleges, and the sixteen Welsh county councils; lastly, the press and the general public were called upon for an opinion, and then the scheme was laid before the President of the Council. If ever there was a national University, the Welsh may claim to have established one. In November 1893 the royal seal was affixed to the charter, and in June 1895 the University held its first Matriculation Examination.