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.

The Norrington Table is calculated by awarding 5 points for a student who receives a 1st Class degree, 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.

Below is the Norrington Table for the academic year 2006/07:^[1]

Position	College	Norrington Score (%)
1	Merton College	76.63
2	Magdalen College	74.81
3	Christ Church	73.23
4	Balliol College	73.10
5	New College	72.46
6	St John's College	71.64
7	Trinity College	71.36
8	Lincoln College	70.57
9	Hertford College	70.20
10	Pembroke College	69.47
11	Worcester College	69.08
12	St Edmund Hall	68.67
13	St Anne's College	68.50
14	University College	68.38
15	Jesus College	68.28
16	Queen's College	67.76
17	Wadham College	67.37
18	Keble College	66.92
19	Somerville College	66.27
20	St Peter's College	66.10
21	Brasenose College	65.98
22	Lady Margaret Hall	65.94
23	Corpus Christi College	65.48
24	Exeter College	65.27
25	St Hugh's College	65.25
26	St Catherine's College	65.15
27	St Hilda's College	64.88
28	Mansfield College	64.13
29	Oriel College	63.43
30	Harris Manchester College	53.64

[edit] Criticisms

The table suggests a massive discrepancy between colleges. While this may not be true for middle-tier colleges, there may be a chasm dividing the very top colleges from the rest. Differences might not appear marked to an outsider.^{[citation needed]}

Having said that, 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.

Also, 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 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. Anecdotal evidence, however, suggests that this happens only extremely rarely, if ever.

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.^[2]