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. Two colleges—Darwin and Clare Hall—do not have undergraduate students and do not feature in the list. It was created in 1981 by Peter Tompkins, then a third-year undergraduate mathematics student at Trinity College, who compiled it for many years. It was formerly published by The Independent. Since 2016, it has been published by Varsity, a student newspaper of the University of Cambridge. It is not an official University of Cambridge table. It does not take account of students who are not candidates for Honours degrees, or those who have failed to gain a degree. It was not published in 2020 or 2021 as a result of the restrictions to the examination process brought about as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

A chart of the Tompkins Table from 1997 to 2019

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), 2.5 points for a Second Undivided (A second class degree that is not divided into Upper or Lower), 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. Christ's College was the top college in 2019, after coming top in 2018 following seven years in which Trinity College came top. 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 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 of these colleges.

Below is the table for 2024, using the following scoring system: five points for a 1st, three for a 2:1, two for 2:2, one for a 3rd. Score shown is a percentage of total points available.:

Position	College	Score (%)	Change in Rank (since 2022)
1	Trinity	73.48	1
2	Christs	73.46	-1
3	Corpus Christi	72.2	6
4	Pembroke	71.12	1
5	Selwyn	70.16	9
6	Churchill	69.9	2
7	Queens'	69.84	3
8	St Catharine's	69.64	-5
9	Emmanuel	69.62	2
10	Gonville and Caius	69.52	-3
11	Downing	69.5	2
12	Clare	69.08	0
13	St Edmund's	68.44	15
14	St John's	68.18	-8
15	Peterhouse	67.84	0
16	Magdalene	67.7	2
17	Robinson	67.42	0
18	Jesus	67.04	-14
19	Trinity Hall	66.98	0
20	Sidney Sussex	65.52	-4
21	Fitzwilliam	65.02	-1
22	Wolfson	64.96	-1
23	Lucy Cavendish	64.9	6
24	King's	64.8	-2
25	Homerton	63.8	1
26	Murray Edwards	63.78	1
27	Newnham	63.42	-3
28	Girton	62.78	-3
29	Hughes Hall	62.68	-6

Past rankings

College	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	Mean
Christ's College	9	14	3	2	1	1	4.79
Churchill College	6	3	11	5	7	5	9.88
Clare College	8	15	18	13	16	24	11.21
Corpus Christi College	18	22	10	12	15	11	12.75
Downing College	11	9	12	20	20	23	13.42
Emmanuel College	5	4	4	6	9	7	3.38
Fitzwilliam College	19	20	23	21	19	17	18.42
Girton College	23	24	27	24	23	20	21.63
Gonville & Caius College	15	19	19	11	14	16	9.75
Homerton College	24	27	24	28	27	26	25.72
Hughes Hall	27	25	29	26	25	25	26.67
Jesus College	4	11	7	14	6	14	10.00
King's College	14	18	14	8	5	12	15.13
Lucy Cavendish College	29	29	26	18	28	29	27.17
Magdalene College	10	2	9	16	18	18	15.08
Murray Edwards College	26	23	25	29	26	19	23.58
Newnham College	22	21	21	23	22	22	22.08
Pembroke College	2	5	2	4	2	3	5.33
Peterhouse	12	6	8	10	4	4	7.33
Queens' College	7	7	6	7	13	6	8.46
Robinson College	20	16	22	25	24	21	18.88
Selwyn College	13	12	15	9	11	8	10.33
Sidney Sussex College	17	17	16	17	17	13	15.42
St. Catharine's College	21	13	17	19	10	9	10.33
St. Edmund's College	28	28	28	22	21	28	27.50
St. John's College	16	10	5	3	8	15	11.71
Trinity College	1	1	1	1	3	2	2.50
Trinity Hall	3	8	13	15	12	10	11.75
Wolfson College	25	26	20	27	29	27	25.61

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 website. Baxter tables rank colleges' undergraduate students by their year and subject separately and are delivered in July or August.[1] 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.[2] They are meant for internal use of Colleges but not the University, being distributed to the Senior Tutors of the Colleges [3], 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,[4] [5] 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.[6] However, with such small sample sizes, the amount of meaningful information which can be extracted from these tables is questionable.[7]

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.

Oxbridge College League Table

Starting in 2020, The Telegraph compiled an Oxbridge college league table, drawing on both academic and other factors, including accommodation, lifestyle and wealth.

See also

• Norrington Table

External links

• Tompkins Table 2015
• Tompkins Table 2014
• Tompkins Table 2013
• Tompkins Tables 2000–2007
• Tompkins Table 1999
• Tompkins Tables 1997, 1998