Trinity College has retained its position as the most academic Cambridge college in this year’s Tompkins Table, extending its lead on Christ’s College.

The table, established in 1981 by then-mathematics student Peter Tompkins, ranks each college according to the exam performance of its undergraduates.

Not formally affiliated with the University of Cambridge, Tompkins uses a points-based system, with each 1st receiving five points, each 2:1 receiving three, each 2:2 receiving two, and each 3rd receiving one.

This year’s results, shared exclusively with Varsity, cement Trinity’s status as the highest-achieving College, beating Christ’s by 1.65 percentage points.

This marks the widening of its lead from 2024, when it pipped the rival college to the top spot for the first time since 2018 by just 0.02 percentage points.

Before Christ’s period of dominance between 2018-2024, when it came first in each of those years, Trinity had topped the table consistently between 2011 and 2017. Trinity has the highest endowment of any Oxbridge college, which exceeded £2 billion as of 2023.

A Christ’s student told Varsity: “Even though Christ’s is known for its academic rigour, I feel like the college is a very supportive environment and everyone is there to help each other out.”

The rest of this year’s top five is made up of Selwyn, Churchill, and Queens, all of whom improved on their 2024 rankings. In last year’s table, they placed fifth, sixth, and seventh respectively.

However, two of last year’s top five suffered significant falls, with Corpus Christi and Pembroke tumbling from third and fourth place to thirteenth and fourteenth.

The Vice-President of Pembroke's Junior Parlour Committee said: “Pembroke’s strong academic reputation is only a small part of what makes the College so great, for example, the college’s focus on welfare and student experience has grown massively over the past few years, with exciting investments like the community cupboard and new music equipment.

“I personally believe that focusing too much on the differences between colleges and the small differences in their academic performances isn’t helpful, as it detracts from what makes each college unique and creates even more pressure in an already brutal environment,” they continued.

A Corpus student told Varsity that although the drop seemed “crazy, some of us haven’t had the best support system”.

The bottom five remained largely unchanged. Homerton took the final spot, with only 18% of students awarded Firsts, below Girton and King’s.

A student from Homerton told Varsity that “our college typically gets involved in a lot of societies” and prompts students to “excel in skills and experiences outside your degree”.

Wolfson made a surprising climb for the typically low-ranked mature student colleges, jumping nine places from 22nd to 13th. Meanwhile, Hughes Hall ended its spell at the foot of the table, placing 23rd in the ranking.

The table has been criticised by students in the past: in 2018, the Students’ Union (SU) denounced the table’s methodology, which it said reflects “the worst of the academic culture here in Cambridge”.

This year’s table comes after Oxford scrapped their equivalent Norrington table in 2024, following a Conference of the Colleges which found it “not fit for purpose”.

This followed a report which found a “direct correlation” between college wealth and high ranking in the table.

Unlike the Tompkins Table, the Norrington scores had been officially published by the University up until 2022.

The 2025 table also comes amid a wider workload review launched by the SU, working alongside the University, after the SU found 59% of students experience workload issues.

The Teaching Review, passed in May, made several recommendations claiming to address the “culture of overwork” through “systemic” change.