Tompkins Table

The Tompkins Table is an annual ranking that lists the Colleges of the University of Cambridge in order of their undergraduate students' performances in that year's examinations. It was created in 1981 by Peter Tompkins, then a third-year undergraduate mathematics student at Trinity College, who compiles it every year exclusively for the newspaper The Independent,^[1] and is not an official University of Cambridge table. Assuming it is based on published Class Lists, it will not take account of students who are not candidates for Honours degrees, or those who have failed to gain a degree, or those whose names the Council have determined should be withheld from public display.

Rankings

Current rankings

Initially, it only included final year exams but since 1997 has covered all exams for which grades are allocated. The table allocates 5 points for a First Class degree, 3 points for an Upper Second (known also as a 2.i), 2 points for a Lower Second (a 2.ii), 1 point for a Third and no points for someone only granted an allowance towards an Ordinary Degree. The scores in each subject are then weighted to a common average, to avoid the bias towards colleges with higher proportions of students entered for subjects which receive higher average grades. The result is expressed as a percentage of the total number of points available. The differences between the highest places on the table are usually very slight. In the last five years Trinity College lays claim to consistently having the best results: Trinity topped the table in 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011 and 2009, as well as being second in 2010. The rankings are not officially endorsed by the University. Since Darwin College and Clare Hall admit only graduate students, they do not feature in this undergraduate ranking. Some of the mature colleges, including St. Edmund's College, Hughes Hall, Lucy Cavendish College, and Wolfson College, tend to perform relatively more poorly in the Tompkins Table, but have significantly more graduate students than undergraduate students, so the results here are not representative of the majority of the student population of each these colleges.

Most of the colleges fall within a 10% range of one another therefore the table should be taken lightly with regards to determining the academic standing of the colleges.

Below is the table for 2015:^[2]

Position	College	Firsts (%)
1	Trinity College	41.0
2	Magdalene College	33.1
3	Churchill College	31.7
4	Emmanuel College	30.3
5	Pembroke College	31.6
6	Peterhouse	30.3
7	Queens' College	28.8
8	Trinity Hall	28.8
9	Downing College	27.5
10	St. John's College	28.1
11	Jesus College	27.4
12	Selwyn College	25.5
13	St Catharine's College	25.1
14	Christ's College	23.8
15	Clare College	26.0
16	Robinson College	24.8
17	Sidney Sussex College	21.6
18	King’s College	26.3
19	Gonville and Caius College	22.8
20	Fitzwilliam College	22.8
21	Newnham College	19.3
22	Corpus Christi College	21.1
23	Murray Edwards College	16.6
24	Girton College	16.6
25	Hughes Hall	15.9
26	Wolfson College	18.1
27	Homerton College	13.0
28	St Edmund's College	18.5
29	Lucy Cavendish College	9.1

Past rankings

College	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	Mean
Christ's College	3	2	1	1	1	4	2	2	4	6	2	8	13	12	6	9	8	9	14	5.6
Churchill College	15	13	20	15	9	10	9	19	18	13	15	6	7	3	10	5	5	6	3	10.6
Clare College	11	6	15	9	6	3	6	4	9	12	17	13	18	8	4	11	11	8	15	9.8
Corpus Christi College	23	18	8	10	20	18	7	10	16	8	8	9	10	13	12	3	16	18	22	13.1
Downing College	12	11	16	8	10	8	12	17	15	11	3	12	15	15	17	20	12	11	9	12.3
Emmanuel College	7	5	5	3	2	2	1	1	5	1	1	2	2	1	2	2	4	5	4	2.9
Fitzwilliam College	13	12	19	21	13	20	20	15	13	19	14	21	21	22	21	19	20	19	20	18.0
Girton College	22	21	21	18	17	16	17	25	24	22	21	22	20	21	23	22	21	23	24	21.1
Gonville & Caius College	8	4	6	12	8	7	4	5	2	2	10	4	4	11	13	16	17	15	19	8.8
Homerton College							25	24	26	25	26	25	25	26	26	27	26	24	27	25.5
Hughes Hall							27	27	29	29	29	26	26	27	27	26	27	27	25	27.1
Jesus College	20	16	11	13	11	9	10	9	7	10	9	7	11	16	8	7	6	4	11	10.3
King's College	14	10	13	20	21	14	16	20	10	17	18	19	17	14	20	13	14	14	18	15.9
Lucy Cavendish College							26	26	27	26	24	28	29	29	29	29	28	29	29	27.6
Magdalene College	17	22	23	22	22	15	18	22	20	20	13	5	8	5	9	15	15	10	2	14.9
Murray Edwards College (formerly New Hall)	24	24	22	16	23	24	24	23	25	24	23	23	23	23	22	24	24	26	23	23.2
Newnham College	18	20	24	24	24	22	21	13	21	23	22	24	24	25	24	23	23	22	21	22.0
Pembroke College	5	9	14	6	7	1	3	6	6	4	7	10	6	10	5	4	2	2	5	5.9
Peterhouse	19	23	17	14	19	23	22	21	22	21	25	18	16	7	18	18	10	12	6	17.4
Queens' College	3	2	3	5	5	5	5	8	8	14	11	16	12	17	14	12	7	7	7	8.5
Robinson College	21	19	9	19	14	21	23	16	11	18	20	17	19	19	19	21	22	20	16	18.1
Selwyn College	16	15	7	7	12	13	14	11	19	7	4	1	3	6	7	6	18	13	12	10.1
Sidney Sussex College	4	17	4	23	16	19	15	18	14	9	12	14	22	18	16	17	19	17	17	15.3
St. Catharine's College	9	14	10	11	18	12	11	7	1	3	5	11	5	9	11	10	9	21	13	10.0
St. Edmund's College							29	29	28	28	28	29	28	28	28	28	29	28	28	28.3
St. John's College	10	8	12	4	4	11	13	14	12	15	19	20	14	20	15	14	13	16	10	12.8
Trinity College	1	1	2	2	3	1	2	3	3	5	6	3	1	1	1	1	1	1	1	2.7
Trinity Hall	6	7	18	17	15	17	19	12	17	16	16	15	9	4	3	8	3	3	8	11.2
Wolfson College							28	28	23	27	27	27	27	24	25	25	25	25	26	25.9

Consecutive yearly rankings 1997-2015:

Chart of Tompkins rankings for the years 1997 to 2015

Similar league tables

Baxter Tables

Certain Colleges of the University of Cambridge commission similar tables called Baxter Tables from Martin Baxter who is a financial analyst specialising in mathematical modelling and who developed the Electoral Calculus web site. Baxter tables rank colleges' undergraduate students by their year and subject separately and are delivered in July or August. They are compiled using published Class Lists, which do not include students who are not candidates for Honours degrees, or those who have failed to gain a degree, or those whose names the Council have determined should be withheld from public display. They are meant for internal use of Colleges but not the University, being distributed to the Senior Tutors of the Colleges , with the full tables not being published publicly or outside of the Colleges, and some students being unaware of their existence. However, the rankings of Colleges in the Baxter Tables are sometimes referred to by Colleges in publicly available literature, and the methodology used to compile the Baxter Tables is also available. There is also a 'value-added' table, which shows how students' results improve over the course of their years at Cambridge, and is intended to give a measure or indication of the quality of teaching at the different Colleges. However, with such small sample sizes, the amount of meaningful information which can be extracted from these tables is questionable.

Norrington Table

The corresponding ranking for Oxford colleges is the Norrington Table. Since 1986, when the University of Oxford adopted split second-class degrees, the Norrington Table has adopted the same method of scoring as the Tompkins Table, but without the weighting attached to individual subject scores.

References

↑ Garner, Richard (2011-07-18). "First-class arts and humanities students help Trinity to top place in Cambridge league table". The Independent. Retrieved 2011-07-19.
↑ "Tompkins Table 2015: Magdalene College has seen a remarkable improvement". Retrieved 17 July 2015.

External links

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