You’re not imagining it, Cambridge is officially the hardest university to get a first

Cambridge students, do you ever feel like your degree is just simply harder than your friends at other unis? Don’t worry, it’s not your brain playing tricks on you.

Cambridge is officially the most difficult university in the country for students to get a first-class degree a report by the office for students has revealed.

The OFS statistics found that, in the 23/24 graduation cycle, 33.3 per cent of Cambridge students achieved a first, 8.7 percentage points below the national sector attainment baseline, a statistic which is described “unexplained” by the OFS.

Despite this, the amount of students receiving a first has increased a lot since fifteen years ago, when it was 16.6 per cent below the national average.

To compare it to Cambridge’s top rival, Oxford, “The Other Place” offered 34.1 per cent of students a first.

Durham, on the other hand, gave out the top grade to 39.6 per cent of its students, while UCL and Imperial gave them to 41 and 52.5 per cent respectively.  Prospective students it’s not too late to change your UCAS priorities!

While Cambridge’s increase has come in line with most English academic institutions, the amount of firsts handed out at Durham and the University of East London has accelerated even more.

These inflated statistics only focus on “unexplained grades”, meaning the A level rate of students, subjects being taught, and resources are taken into account.

This means that there is no explicable reason why this statistic should be increasing. Perhaps your most boring lecturer has a second lease on life, or maybe, just maybe universities are becoming more lenient with their marking.

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Evaluating the survey, Jean Arnold, deputy director of OFS, said: “We encourage all institutions to continue to review their marking and assessment policies to ensure their awards properly reflect student achievement and protect public confidence in higher education.”

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