Criticisms
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 was 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 was general feeling amongst students that this happened frequently - it was included in the campaign of at least one candidate in the 2008 OUSU elections.The culture which bought about such an issue however seems to have been condemned to the past.
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.
Read more about this topic: Norrington Table
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