One hundred twenty years after it first pried open the door for women's education at Harvard, Radcliffe College announced yesterday it will dissolve.

An agreement between Radcliffe and Harvard officials paves the way for a formally coeducational Harvard College and a new Radcliffe Institute under the University's umbrella.

The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, unveiled to staff, alumnae and the press yesterday, will become a non-degree-granting sector of the University on equal administrative footing with Harvard's nine faculties.

"This really is the fulfillment of more than 120 years of a journey that Harvard and Radcliffe undertook together, but separately," said Harvard President Neil L. Rudenstine.

The Institute will "sustain a commitment to the study of women, gender and society," according to officials. However, leaders have said that issues of gender will not remain Radcliffe's exclusive focus. The ties that will bind the new interdisciplinary center together have yet to be determined exactly.

"An Institute for Advanced Study can and must define its intellectual foci, so it has both intellectual coherence and, I hope, excellent connections with the intellectual activity that surrounds it," Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said yesterday.

Radcliffe President Linda S. Wilson also announced yesterday that she will step down from her post at the end of June. Wilson, who will take a year-long paid sabbatical before moving on, is Radcliffe's seventh and final president.

Wilson noted yesterday that it has been a "rare privilege" to lead Radcliffe.

"Ten years is a long time to stay in this seat," she said. "I want to invest everything I can in this institution, and this is one way I can do it."

Director of the Schlesinger Library and former Smith College President Mary Maples Dunn will become the interim head of Radcliffe, serving until Rudenstine appoints a permanent dean.

A special committee, which will include at least some current members of the Radcliffe Board of Trustees, will assist in the selection and confirmation of this first Institute dean.

Dunn said yesterday that she expects to be the acting head of Radcliffe for between six months and a year, but that she will stay on until a permanent dean is selected.

"When they find the dean of their dreams, I'll retire again," she said.

Dunn did not rule out returning to the Schlesinger Library if the selection process is quick. In the meantime, current Radcliffe College Archivist Jane S. Knowles will serve as the acting director of the library.

According to one source, the wording of the agreement was bounced back and forth throughout the weekend, and the final papersweren't initialed until minutes before yesterday's3 p.m. press conference.

While today's announcement is not officiallybinding--a detailed legal document is still in theworks--it sets forth a series of generalprinciples that have been agreed upon by the twoinstitutions after more than a year of closed-doornegotiations.

Rudenstine said yesterday that it should takebetween 30 and 60 days for lawyers to work out afinal, legally binding agreement.

"It's really just a technical matter fromhere," he said.

Among the principles announced yesterday is anagreement that female undergraduates will now beadmitted to Harvard College only, not Radcliffe.

The signing of a legal contract at anunspecified future date would end Radcliffe'sstatus as an independent institution. Since 1977,Radcliffe has maintained its own land, endowmentand an administrative structure answerable only toits own Board of Trustees.

Under the new proposal, all of that willchange. The Board of Trustees will cease to exist.Radcliffe's land--more than 20 acres of primeCambridge real estate--and buildings will befolded into the University. Harvard will then ownthe Radcliffe Quadrangle and continue to useCabot, Currier and Pforzheimer Houses asundergraduate residences.

Harvard will contribute $150 million toRadcliffe's present endowment to form a $350million dowry for the new Institute. $50 millionof those funds will be used to supportundergraduate financial aid for both men andwomen.

As head of a "tub"--the University's term forentities like the graduate schools and the Facultyof Arts and Sciences--the dean of Radcliffe willnot have the formal consulting power regarding thewelfare of female undergraduates that Wilson hastechnically enjoyed as president.

But some hope that, as a full member of theUniversity's inner circle rather than a naggingneighbor, Radcliffe will now have the power toaffect real change for Harvard's women--studentsand faculty.

Radcliffe Vice President for College RelationsBonnie R. Clendenning noted the new Institute willnot be Harvard's smallest division.

"We might have some clout," Clendenning said.

The future of the Radcliffe College AlumnaeAssociation (RCAA) remains in flux following theagreement. Radcliffe College currently funds theRCAA, and leaders for both Harvard and Radcliffesaid yesterday that the organization's funding hasnot yet been discussed.

Yet, Radcliffe officials took steps to preventthe outpouring of alumnae anger that erupted afternews first surfaced last spring that the twoschools were in negotiations about Radcliffe'sfuture.

Administrators have maintained a vow of secrecyin the last few weeks in efforts to prevent newsof the deal from leaking before a fullannouncement. In addition, Radcliffe sent morethan 30,000 individual letters announcing the dealto its alumnae yesterday morning