Revealed: How easy it is to get a first at your university

It may come as a surprise, but one of the main reasons to go to university is to come out the other side with a degree. Getting a 2:2 is almost unimaginable and if you want an actual job a 2:1 is a must. But the coveted first is becoming easier and easier to get, apparently. Not that it feels that way when you’re sat in the library for hours labouring over a dissertation that is slowly making less and less sense.

But if you’re University College London or Aston University, you’re in luck. They give out the most first class degrees, with 33 per cent of their students coming out of university with a first.

30 per cent of Oxford’s students and LSE students also graduate with a first, according to data obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

Rounding out the top ten are Bath, Birmingham and Durham with 28 per cent, St Andrews claiming the top spot in Scotland with 27 per cent, and Loughborough and Kent with 26 per cent.

Aberystwyth came last with only 14 per cent of students obtaining first class honours. Other universities that scored poorly include Chester with 15 per cent, Dundee with 16 per cent, and Aberdeen, Falmouth and UCLan giving only 17 per cent of students firsts.

See the full list below:

Aberdeen – 17 per cent

Aberystwyth – 14 per cent

Aston – 33 per cent

Bath – 28 per cent

Belfast – 21 per cent

Birmingham – 28 per cent

Bristol – 25 per cent

Brookes – 18 per cent

Cardiff – 21 per cent

Dundee – 16 per cent

Durham – 28 per cent

Edinburgh – 22 per cent

Exeter – 21 per cent

Falmouth – 17 per cent

Glasgow – 19 per cent

Hull – 19 per cent

Kent – 26 per cent

King’s – 25 per cent

Leeds – 24 per cent

Leicester – 19 per cent

Lincoln – 18 per cent

Liverpool – 23 per cent

Liverpool John Moores – 22 per cent

Loughborough – 26 per cent

LSE – 29 per cent

Manchester – 25 per cent

Newcastle – 21 per cent

Northumbria – 23 per cent

Nottingham – 24 per cent

Nottingham Trent – 21 per cent

Oxford – 30 per cent

Plymouth – 20 per cent

Portsmouth – 22 per cent

Queen Mary’s – 21 per cent

Reading – 23 per cent

Royal Holloway – 22 per cent

Sheffield – 21 per cent

Southampton – 25 per cent

St Andrews – 27 per cent

Strathclyde – 22 per cent

Stirling – 21 per cent

Sussex – 21 per cent

UCL – 33 per cent

UCLan – 17 per cent

UWE – 22 per cent

York – 25 per cent