Norrington Table
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The Norrington Table is an annual ranking that lists the colleges of the University of Oxford in order of the performance of their undergraduate students on that year's final examinations. It was created in 1962 by Sir Arthur Norrington, who was then president of Trinity College. While the difference between the highest places on the table is usually very slight, the top colleges remain very competitive about their rankings on the Norrington Table--their competitiveness has been heightened in recent years by increased media attention on the rankings. The Norrington Table is calculated by awarding 5 points for a student who receives a 1st Class, 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 students in that college multiplied by 5), and expressed as a percentage per college.
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. The corresponding rankings for the University of Cambridge is the Tompkins Table.
Below are the official rankings for 2005:
- St. John's College
- Merton College
- Balliol College
- Magdalen College
- University College
- Hertford College
- Exeter College
- St Anne's College
- Christ Church
- Keble College
- Wadham College
- Somerville College
- Jesus College
- Trinity College
- New College
- Corpus Christi College
- Pembroke College
- Brasenose College
- Mansfield College
- Queen's College
- Worcester College
- St Catherine's College
- St Hilda's College
- Lincoln College
- St Edmund Hall
- St Peter's College
- Oriel College
- St Hugh's College
- Lady Margaret Hall
- Harris Manchester College
Criticisms
A former key criticism is that students are allowed to withdraw their names from the public list and are 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, St Catherine's College was purported to be 3rd when it was in fact 16th. This prompted the university to circulate an official table amongst academics in rebuttal of several major inaccuracies of The Times' version when all results were counted.
Many find the table unhelpful because it suggests a massive discrepancy between colleges, which could influence applications, even though the variations are often minimal.
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.
Moreover, the table does not account for success in postgraduate examinations, nor for distinctions awarded for Master's degrees. This criticism is underscored by the fact that several of the colleges that appear low on the Norrington Table have the best records of success with their graduate students.
Finally, the table is biased towards colleges which have larger than average numbers of students in science subjects such as Chemistry and Mathematics where a higher proportion attain a 1st Class degree compared to arts degrees (where the majority attain a 2.1).