Class Lists displayed outside Senate HouseLouis Ashworth

The University is seeking consultation on plans to change the system by which it awards degree honours to account for both Parts of a BA degree.

Currently, a class mark is not assigned to an entire BA degree, but to each part of a tripos. A first in each part can be called a ‘double first’, but this is merely an informal title.

The consultation document, issued by the Education Committee of the General Board of the University, cites multiple reasons for the change. It notes “a lack of understanding of the system amongst students, academics and employers”, in particular by employers who “incorrectly assume that for Cambridge students the class awarded in the final year is the cumulative class for the Degree.”

It claims that the Careers Service has identified cases in which Cambridge students attempting to average the marks for Part I and Part II of their Tripos have fallen foul of investigations into their credentials, which often do not account for the idiosyncrasies of the Cambridge system.

Cambridge, the document observes, is out of step with the rest of the Russell Group in not assigning an overall mark, which is likely to cause difficulties as the organisation attempts to introduce a Grade Point Average system amongst its members.

It indicates a preference for only taking into account marks in second and third years, “when students have gained an appropriate body of knowledge and understanding allows them to demonstrate the use of their skills to best advantage.”

Preliminary examinations (‘Prelims’), which are currently taken by the English and History Triposes, will continue not to count towards either Tripos.

The Education Committee has put forward four proposals for weighting the contribution of each year. Two of the four suggest that the classification derive from some combination of second- and third-year exams: either each one would contribute 50 per cent of the overall classification, or third-year exams would contribute two-thirds and second-year, one-third.

A third proposal would allocate 20 per cent of the overall classification to first-year exams, 30 per cent to second-year, and 50 per cent to third-year. The fourth represents the status quo.

Faculty Boards would be granted relative liberty to devise the details of their classification systems, within the bounds of the University’s policy on the weighting of years.

The Committee also recommends that a ranking be assigned to every member of a Tripos cohort and published on CamSIS.

It suggests that each subject should be required to harmonise their marking systems to award a First to all examinations scoring above 70 per cent, an Upper Second to those between 60 and 69 per cent, a Lower Second to those between 50 and 59 per cent, and a Third to those between 40 and 49 per cent. While this is already standard practice, it is not currently officially required.

Gonville and Caius College JCR is requesting opinions on the proposal from its student body. It is unclear whether or not other college JCRs have received the document, or that they will follow suit.

Varsity has contacted the University for comment.