The publication of the 2014 Tompkins Table has seen Trinity win out once again, securing the number one spot for the fourth year running.

The annual table also documented Trinity’s record-breaking surge of students achieving first class degrees. A total of 42.9 per cent of Trinity students graduated with a first class degree, a rise of 1.2 per cent on the 2013 result and the highest percentage ever achieved by a Cambridge college. Trinity remain engaged in a fierce rivalry with second place college Pembroke, the gap between them having narrowed by eight percentage points from last year’s table. 

St Catharine’s, on the other hand, endured a harsh fall from grace in this year’s standings, dropping from 9th to 21st place within one year. Corpus Christi suffered similarly as they fell to 18th place, after a large fall from 3rd to 16th place in the 2013 table.

Female-only colleges also failed to shine, as single-sex college Murray Edwards suffered the lowest overall percentage of firsts at 10.3 per cent and Lucy Cavendish rounded out at the bottom of the table, dropping one place from 28th in the 2013 rankings.

Nevertheless, it was a good year for colleges such as Magdalene and Clare, which climbed five and three places respectively. Homerton, Jesus and Robinson also experienced success as they all rose by two places.

The Tompkins Table was developed by Cambridge alumnus Peter Tompkins in 1981 for the Independent whilst a third year Mathematics undergraduate at Trinity. Published annually in the Independent, the table ranks all Cambridge colleges based on a points system which is more heavily weighted towards firsts and 2:1s, which garner five and three points respectively. Although a source of much interest for Cambridge students, it is not an official university table, unlike the lesser-known Baxter Tables, published yearly in September.  

Trinity add their four-year streak to a mountain of other accolades, including the highest number of Nobel prize-winners. Peter Tompkins, former Trinity alumnus and the compiler of the table, told the Independent that the achievement was record-breaking across the 29 Cambridge colleges; "Once again, the college had by far the highest percentage of top first class degrees, almost 43 per cent, the highest proportion ever achieved by any college."