Norrington Table
Encyclopedia
The Norrington Table is an annual ranking that lists the college
s of the University of Oxford
that have undergraduate students in order of the performance of their undergraduate students on that year's final examination
s.
, 3 points for a 2:1, 2 for a 2:2 and 1 for a 3rd, divided by the maximum possible score (i.e. the number of finalists in that college multiplied by 5), and expressed as a percentage
(rounded to 2 decimal places) per college. Although the difference between the highest places on the table is usually very slight, the top colleges remain very competitive about their rankings on the Table. Their competitiveness has been heightened in recent years by increased media
attention on the rankings.
Previously the university had refused to endorse an official table, leading to inaccuracies (see Criticisms below), so the university finally published its own rankings using examination results from all final year undergraduates in 2005.
, who was then president of Trinity College
. Norrington did not invent the idea of producing a table of the results of Oxford Colleges. Rather, he suggested a refinement to the weightings given to results by a pre-existing table. Norrington's scoring system was suggested in 1963 and abandoned after 1985, owing to changes in the Oxford examination system.
On 5 September 1963, Norrington had a letter published in The Times
, in which he objected to the table that their correspondent had invented two days earlier (3 September 1963, p. 12). The Times had previously published a table of Oxford Colleges' results in 1962 (28 August 1962, p. 5).
Norrington wrote: "Your Correspondent has analysed the final examination results this year and gives an order of merit, among the first colleges, based on the percentage of Firsts and Seconds. This, in effect, is the same as basing it on the percentage of Thirds, and gives it no extra credit for Firsts. College A, for example, that gets 20 Firsts, 60 Seconds, and 20 Thirds scores less by this method than College B that gets no Firsts, 81 Seconds and 19 Thirds, but surely A has, in reality, done much better than B. A better result, I submit, is obtained by a points system in which a First scores more than a second and a Second more than a Third. If you make the points 3, 2, and 1 respectively and calculate what percentage of its "possible" each college has secured, you will find that College A, with 200 points out of 300, has scored 66.67 per cent, and B, with 181, only 60 per cent. This method of calculation will be found to promote Magdalen and Merton, which come surprisingly low in your Correspondent's order." (5 September 1963, p. 13)
In 1986, when Oxford for the first time split Second Class honours into Upper Seconds and Lower Seconds, The Times unilaterally adopted the Tompkins system for classifying colleges' results. Tompkins gives more weight to a First class degree: five points for a First, three for a 2.1, two for a 2.2, and one for a Third. This system was invented in 1981 by Peter Tompkins, of Birkenhead, as a method of classifying the results of Cambridge
colleges, and a table compiled by Tompkins on this basis was published on 28 August by The Times (28 Aug 1981, p. 10) alongside a table using the Norrington scoring system, which had been compiled by the Cambridge Evening News
. The Tompkins system became the preferred one for Cambridge results, and has prevailed for Oxford results, too, since 1986.
and Mathematics
where a higher proportion attain a 1st Class degree compared to arts degrees (where more students attain a 2.1), a feature in respect of which scores are adjusted in the corresponding Tompkins Table
at Cambridge
.
There is also a fear that competitive colleges could be unreasonable in demanding students who may miss a 2:1 to be "sent down" (expelled), or those who may miss out on a 1st to defer. There is general feeling amongst students that this happens frequently - it was included in the campaign of at least one candidate in the 2008 OUSU elections.
Up until 2004, a key criticism was that students were allowed to withdraw their names from the public lists and were thus not counted — Trinity College
President Sir Michael Beloff
likened this to a Premiership
final league table, only with several random results missing. In 2004, in response to this criticism, the University started issuing its own official Norrington Table, which accounted for all degrees issued, including those of people who opted out of the public lists. The rankings published since then, therefore, do not possess this weakness.
John Lucas
, FBA
, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford
, presented a critique of the Norrington Table in a 1980 article.
Colleges of the University of Oxford
The University of Oxford comprises 38 Colleges and 6 Permanent Private Halls of religious foundation. Colleges and PPHs are autonomous self-governing corporations within the university, and all teaching staff and students studying for a degree of the university must belong to one of the colleges...
s of the University of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...
that have undergraduate students in order of the performance of their undergraduate students on that year's final examination
Final examination
A final examination is a test given to students at the end of a course of study or training. Although the term can be used in the context of physical training, it most often occurs in the academic world...
s.
Overview
Currently, the Norrington Table is calculated by awarding 5 points for a student who receives a 1st Class degreeBritish undergraduate degree classification
The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading scheme for undergraduate degrees in the United Kingdom...
, 3 points for a 2:1, 2 for a 2:2 and 1 for a 3rd, divided by the maximum possible score (i.e. the number of finalists in that college multiplied by 5), and expressed as a percentage
Percentage
In mathematics, a percentage is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100 . It is often denoted using the percent sign, “%”, or the abbreviation “pct”. For example, 45% is equal to 45/100, or 0.45.Percentages are used to express how large/small one quantity is, relative to another quantity...
(rounded to 2 decimal places) per college. Although the difference between the highest places on the table is usually very slight, the top colleges remain very competitive about their rankings on the Table. Their competitiveness has been heightened in recent years by increased media
Mass media
Mass media refers collectively to all media technologies which are intended to reach a large audience via mass communication. Broadcast media transmit their information electronically and comprise of television, film and radio, movies, CDs, DVDs and some other gadgets like cameras or video consoles...
attention on the rankings.
Previously the university had refused to endorse an official table, leading to inaccuracies (see Criticisms below), so the university finally published its own rankings using examination results from all final year undergraduates in 2005.
History of the Norrington Table
Contrary to popular belief, the Norrington Table was not created in 1962 by Sir Arthur NorringtonArthur Lionel Pugh Norrington
Sir Arthur Lionel Pugh Norrington , was a publisher, President of Trinity College, Oxford, Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, and originator of the Norrington Table.-Life:...
, who was then president of Trinity College
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
. Norrington did not invent the idea of producing a table of the results of Oxford Colleges. Rather, he suggested a refinement to the weightings given to results by a pre-existing table. Norrington's scoring system was suggested in 1963 and abandoned after 1985, owing to changes in the Oxford examination system.
On 5 September 1963, Norrington had a letter published in The Times
The Times
The Times is a British daily national newspaper, first published in London in 1785 under the title The Daily Universal Register . The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary since 1981 of News International...
, in which he objected to the table that their correspondent had invented two days earlier (3 September 1963, p. 12). The Times had previously published a table of Oxford Colleges' results in 1962 (28 August 1962, p. 5).
Norrington wrote: "Your Correspondent has analysed the final examination results this year and gives an order of merit, among the first colleges, based on the percentage of Firsts and Seconds. This, in effect, is the same as basing it on the percentage of Thirds, and gives it no extra credit for Firsts. College A, for example, that gets 20 Firsts, 60 Seconds, and 20 Thirds scores less by this method than College B that gets no Firsts, 81 Seconds and 19 Thirds, but surely A has, in reality, done much better than B. A better result, I submit, is obtained by a points system in which a First scores more than a second and a Second more than a Third. If you make the points 3, 2, and 1 respectively and calculate what percentage of its "possible" each college has secured, you will find that College A, with 200 points out of 300, has scored 66.67 per cent, and B, with 181, only 60 per cent. This method of calculation will be found to promote Magdalen and Merton, which come surprisingly low in your Correspondent's order." (5 September 1963, p. 13)
In 1986, when Oxford for the first time split Second Class honours into Upper Seconds and Lower Seconds, The Times unilaterally adopted the Tompkins system for classifying colleges' results. Tompkins gives more weight to a First class degree: five points for a First, three for a 2.1, two for a 2.2, and one for a Third. This system was invented in 1981 by Peter Tompkins, of Birkenhead, as a method of classifying the results of Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
colleges, and a table compiled by Tompkins on this basis was published on 28 August by The Times (28 Aug 1981, p. 10) alongside a table using the Norrington scoring system, which had been compiled by the Cambridge Evening News
Cambridge Evening News
The Cambridge News is a British daily newspaper published each weekday and on Saturdays. It is distributed from its parent company Cambridge Newspapers Ltd's Milton base which was opened in 1991 as a print works, and became the Evening News main operational hub in 1998...
. The Tompkins system became the preferred one for Cambridge results, and has prevailed for Oxford results, too, since 1986.
Recent rankings
Below is the Norrington Table for the academic year 2010/11:| Rank | College | Norrington Score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Merton College Merton College, Oxford Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to... |
75.06% |
| 2 | Christ Church Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England... |
73.94% |
| 3 | New College New College, Oxford New College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom.- Overview :The College's official name, College of St Mary, is the same as that of the older Oriel College; hence, it has been referred to as the "New College of St Mary", and is now almost always... |
73.93% |
| 4 | Magdalen College Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalen College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £153 million. Magdalen is currently top of the Norrington Table after over half of its 2010 finalists received first-class degrees, a record... |
73.62% |
| 5 | Hertford College Hertford College, Oxford Hertford College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is located in Catte Street, directly opposite the main entrance of the original Bodleian Library. As of 2006, the college had a financial endowment of £52m. There are 612 students , plus various visiting... |
73.52% |
| 6 | Worcester College Worcester College, Oxford Worcester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. The college was founded in the eighteenth century, but its predecessor on the same site had been an institution of learning since the late thirteenth century... |
73.22% |
| 7 | Wadham College Wadham College, Oxford Wadham College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom, located at the southern end of Parks Road in central Oxford. It was founded by Nicholas and Dorothy Wadham, wealthy Somerset landowners, during the reign of King James I... |
72.85% |
| 8 | Jesus College Jesus College, Oxford Jesus College is one of the colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It is in the centre of the city, on a site between Turl Street, Ship Street, Cornmarket Street and Market Street... |
71.79% |
| 9 | Exeter College Exeter College, Oxford Exeter College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England and the fourth oldest college of the University. The main entrance is on the east side of Turl Street... |
70.89% |
| 10 | St John's College St John's College, Oxford __FORCETOC__St John's College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford, one of the larger Oxford colleges with approximately 390 undergraduates, 200 postgraduates and over 100 academic staff. It was founded by Sir Thomas White, a merchant, in 1555, whose heart is buried in the chapel of... |
70.74% |
| 11 | Brasenose College Brasenose College, Oxford Brasenose College, originally Brazen Nose College , is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. As of 2006, it has an estimated financial endowment of £98m... |
70.72% |
| 12 | Mansfield College Mansfield College, Oxford Mansfield College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Of the colleges that accept both undergraduate and graduate students Mansfield College is one of the smallest, comprising approximately 210 undergraduates, 130 graduates, 35 visiting students and 50... |
70.00% |
| 12 | Pembroke College Pembroke College, Oxford Pembroke College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located in Pembroke Square. As of 2009, Pembroke had an estimated financial endowment of £44.9 million.-History:... |
70.00% |
| 12 | University College University College, Oxford .University College , is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. As of 2009 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £110m... |
70.00% |
| 15 | Corpus Christi College Corpus Christi College, Oxford Corpus Christi College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom... |
69.86% |
| 16 | Lincoln College Lincoln College, Oxford Lincoln College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. It is situated on Turl Street in central Oxford, backing onto Brasenose College and adjacent to Exeter College... |
69.20% |
| 17 | Trinity College Trinity College, Oxford The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,... |
68.84% |
| 18 | Balliol College Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College , founded in 1263, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England but founded by a family with strong Scottish connections.... |
68.27% |
| 19 | Keble College Keble College, Oxford Keble College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its main buildings are on Parks Road, opposite the University Museum and the University Parks. The college is bordered to the north by Keble Road, to the south by Museum Road, and to the west by Blackhall... |
68.00% |
| 19 | St Anne's College | 68.00% |
| 19 | St Hilda's College St Hilda's College, Oxford St Hilda's College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England.The college was founded in 1893 as a hall for women, and remained an all-women's college until 2006.... |
68.00% |
| 22 | The Queen's College The Queen's College, Oxford The Queen's College, founded 1341, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Queen's is centrally situated on the High Street, and is renowned for its 18th-century architecture... |
67.64% |
| 23 | St. Hugh's College | 67.38% |
| 24 | Somerville College Somerville College, Oxford Somerville College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, and was one of the first women's colleges to be founded there... |
67.27% |
| 25 | Lady Margaret Hall Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford Lady Margaret Hall is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England, located at the end of Norham Gardens in north Oxford. As of 2006 the college had an estimated financial endowment of £34m.... |
67.07% |
| 26 | St. Catherine's College | 66.41% |
| 27 | St. Edmund Hall | 66.24% |
| 28 | Regent's Park College Regent's Park College, Oxford Regent's Park College is a Permanent Private Hall in the University of Oxford, situated in central Oxford, just off St Giles.The College admits both undergraduate and graduate students to take Oxford degrees in a variety of Arts, Humanities and Social Science subjects... |
66.20% |
| 29 | St. Peter's College | 65.86% |
| 30 | Oriel College | 65.58% |
| 31 | Harris Manchester College Harris Manchester College, Oxford Harris Manchester College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. Formerly known as Manchester College, it is listed in the University Statutes as Manchester Academy and Harris College, and at University ceremonies it is called Collegium de Harris et... |
60.00% |
Past rankings
Norrington Table rankings since 2000:Criticisms
The table is biased towards colleges which have larger than average numbers of students in science subjects such as ChemistryChemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
and Mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
where a higher proportion attain a 1st Class degree compared to arts degrees (where more students attain a 2.1), a feature in respect of which scores are adjusted in the corresponding Tompkins Table
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...
at Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
.
There is also a fear that competitive colleges could be unreasonable in demanding students who may miss a 2:1 to be "sent down" (expelled), or those who may miss out on a 1st to defer. There is general feeling amongst students that this happens frequently - it was included in the campaign of at least one candidate in the 2008 OUSU elections.
Up until 2004, a key criticism was that students were allowed to withdraw their names from the public lists and were thus not counted — Trinity College
Trinity College, Oxford
The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity in the University of Oxford, of the foundation of Sir Thomas Pope , or Trinity College for short, is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. It stands on Broad Street, next door to Balliol College and Blackwells bookshop,...
President Sir Michael Beloff
Michael Beloff
The Honourable Michael Jacob Beloff QC is a prominent English barrister. His adoption of the title or style "The Honourable" is a consequence of his father Max Beloff, Baron Beloff, having been awarded a life peerage in 1981...
likened this to a Premiership
FA Premier League
The Premier League is an English professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the English football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with The Football League. The Premier...
final league table, only with several random results missing. In 2004, in response to this criticism, the University started issuing its own official Norrington Table, which accounted for all degrees issued, including those of people who opted out of the public lists. The rankings published since then, therefore, do not possess this weakness.
John Lucas
John Lucas (philosopher)
- Overview :John Lucas was educated at Winchester College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied first mathematics, then Greats , obtaining first class honors, and proceeding to an MA in Philosophy in 1954. He spent the 1957-58 academic year at Princeton University, deepening his...
, FBA
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...
, Fellow of Merton College, Oxford
Merton College, Oxford
Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. Its foundation can be traced back to the 1260s when Walter de Merton, chancellor to Henry III and later to Edward I, first drew up statutes for an independent academic community and established endowments to...
, presented a critique of the Norrington Table in a 1980 article.