It’s been three years since the last Tompkins Table was published and Christ’s has found itself on top yet again
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Christ’s College has topped the 2022 Tompkins Table with a commanding lead once again.
With 46.10% of its undergraduates receiving firsts – a 2.1% increase since the last edition of the Table was published – Christ’s have maintained their string of first-place finishes since 2018.
With a score of 76.41, Christ’s is far ahead of the colleges that came second, Trinity (72.32) and third, St Catharine’s (72.25). Jesus College (71.23) had a standout showing to reach fourth, up nine places since 2019, the last time the Tompkins Table was published.
Over half of Christ’s female undergraduates graduating in 2022 achieved firsts (58.2%), while the proportion of male undergraduates receiving firsts fell to 45.6% this year. Christ’s director of admissions, Dr Emily Tomlinson, has previously cited the contribution of women to Christ’s success in 2019 – a trend that seems to have continued this year.
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Women and ethnic minorities get fewer firsts than white male peers, data suggests
Dr Tomlinson said: “both the College and the University have work to do in tackling attainment gaps, but the success of our Women Finalists suggests that some things might be moving in the right direction, at last.”
Wolfson College achieved its best-ever finish this year at 21st, edging Hughes Hall and St Edmund’s College to finish as the highest-placed mature college. Meanwhile, King’s College recorded its worst performance in over 25 years, placed 22nd on the table.
As in 2019, Lucy Cavendish College remains at the bottom of the Tompkins Table. It had the lowest percentage of firsts of any college (16.91%), but that is nevertheless an improvement since the last edition of the table.
Lucy Cavendish’s JCR president admitted that “it is disappointing to see the position of Lucy in the Tompkins table this year,” but claimed “these statistics do not reflect the vibrant, diverse and highly successful college that Lucy Cavendish is today.”
Despite its impressive performance in 2019, Peterhouse College finished 15th – losing ground to Churchill College, Jesus and St John’s College this year and dropping 11 places.
Position
College
Score%
Firsts
Position in 2019
1
Christ’s
76.41
46.10
1
2
Trinity
72.32
38.51
2
3
St Catharine’s
72.25
38.86
9
4
Jesus
71.23
36.42
13
5
Pembroke
71.04
46.01
3
6
St John’s
70.71
35.36
15
7
Gonville and Caius
70.4
32.45
16
8
Churchill
70.12
33.10
5
9
Corpus Christi
69.61
33.21
11
10
Queens’
69.38
31.51
6
11
Emmanuel
69.27
32.76
7
12
Clare
68.72
29.59
24
13
Downing
68.32
28.86
23
14
Selwyn
68.26
28.18
8
15
Peterhouse
67.78
30.77
4
16
Sidney Sussex
67.72
27.62
13
17
Robinson
67.67
28.02
21
18
Magdalene
67.49
28.53
18
19
Trinity Hall
67.01
26.91
10
20
Fitzwilliam
66.51
26.12
17
21
Wolfson
66.4
27.63
27
22
King’s
65.75
25.40
12
23
Hughes Hall
65.7
23.70
25
24
Newnham
65.55
25.82
22
25
Girton
64.33
22.24
20
26
Homerton
63.9
21.86
26
27
Murray Edwards
63.88
20.81
19
28
St Edmund’s
62.84
22.11
28
29
Lucy Cavendish
61.4
16.91
29
The Tompkins Table compares the academic performances of the 29 Cambridge colleges offering undergraduate courses. It has been published annually since 1981 and was first created by Peter Tompkins, a third-year mathematics student at Trinity College at the time. However, it was not published in 2020 and 2021 due to exam disruptions.
The last official Tompkins Table was published in 2019. Due to Covid-19 exam mitigations, the data for 2020-2021 was impacted by changes to how grades were awarded and achieved.
In previous years, the ranking system has received backlash from Cambridge SU, who argued in 2018 that the table reflected “the worst of the academic culture here in Cambridge.”
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