The percentage is even higher for Durham, UCL and Imperial. What’s your point? These are also top universities, it’s not surprising the students might be more likely to achieve higher results on average
But surely the better the uni is, the harder it is to get a first? Oxbridge (and Durham, UCL, Imperial, etc.) are likely to have good students, true, but they also hold their students to a higher standard. It seems to me that the percentage of firsts should be roughly the same at universities across the board as the difficulty of the degree and the ability of the students balance each other out. Getting into a ‘better’ university doesn’t necessarily mean that you’ll automatically be awarded a higher class of degree; it’s not about the prestige of the university or even the quality of teaching, but the work you do as a student. Everybody within the same subject receives the same teaching but not everyone gets the same result; by your logic everyone at Oxbridge, once they’d been accepted, would breeze through and receive a first just because it’s a top university. I’m not an expert but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t work like that.
I say this as a current student at a non-Oxbridge Russell Group uni, so I do get why you’d be annoyed, but while obviously it’s nice to get into a top university it means nothing if you just expect to get a good mark on the basis of your uni’s ranking, which is based on the quality of research, teaching, etc. and not on the results of the students.
If a highly-regarded uni guaranteed a higher degree class, rankings would mean nothing and it would be just as easy to get into Oxbridge as anywhere else. It’s harder to get in because it’s harder to do well; the difficulty is relative to the ability of the students. Similarly, a lower-ranked uni is easier to get into and the workload is lighter, but the students‘ ability should match that level so the spread of results from third to first should be roughly the same as anywhere else.
To go back to the original point, I’m pretty sure it is easier to get a first than it used to be, and also to get into uni in the first place. Neither is a huge achievement any more. In 1994 7% of UK university students got a first, but 29% did in 2019. Obviously my generation isn’t more intelligent than previous generations - it must just be easier now. As it becomes more common it loses its value, so a first class degree, regardless of which university it’s from, isn’t going to be the thing on your CV which makes you stand out from other job applicants.
Sorry if I sound cynical and sorry for that absolute ramble
Ruby is missing out on the books that Enid Blyton apparently wrote whilst on crack, where some kids (two of whom are called fan and fool) find a magic tree and make friends with a guy who has a giant head shaped like the moon.
To anyone who’s not from the UK/hasn’t seen them I recommend the Comic Strip’s Famous Five parodies: Five Go Mad in Dorset and Five Go Mad on Mescaline. They’re intentionally non-PC - you’ve been warned!
