University plan to say GOODBYE to public class lists

Freedom of Information requests by Varsity have shown that the University is on its way to abolishing class lists of exam results. 

It seems that CUSU’s campaign may have finally worked. Freedom of Information requests have shown that the University is making plans to scrap publishing of exam results in public and in “any location”. Therefore, if you’ve been wasting your holiday procrastinating only you (and perhaps your DOS) will know just how badly you did.

The proposal for the abolition was made by the General Board of the Faculties, which is chaired by the Vice-Chancellor of the University, the report of which showed that “the majority” agreed that class lists should not be displayed in public places. This follows a campaign ‘Our Grade, Our Choice’ last year which gained over 1,200 signatures in support of students getting an increased say in what happens to their results when they are made available, and CUSU’s vote in November 2015 to officially oppose the class lists due to the damaging impact on student welfare.

If your revision is going as bad as this hideous mess fear not! Only you will know about your imminent failure!

Currently, the university has a “opt-out” system, where students can choose not to have their name and class of degree displayed if they issue a reason, something which the university says around 30 students each year choose to do.

Cambridge is the last university to still display class lists in public, following Oxford abolishing theirs in over seven years ago. A circular issued earlier last year gave the colleges the option to express their preferences in the situation, giving them four options: A) Abolition of public class lists B) Greater flexibility to opt out C) Partial Publication D) No Change. The General Board concluded that the “majority of colleges” were in favour of the abolition of public class lists, with only one unlisted college opting for no change at all.

Debate was raised over the issue of the Tompkins and the Baxter tables, with the conclusion being that due to the manner it is produced, abolition of class lists displayed publicly would lead effectively to ending the display of the Tompkins Table. Support remained, however, for the circulation of the Baxter table circulated internally.

Lack of public humiliation may be of little comfort confronted with the intimidating exam hall.

The proposal put forward to the Education Committee of the General Board of the Faculties in January this year agreed that with the proposals “on the grounds that information about an individual’s Class should be regarded as confidential”.

It seems that the University is well on their way to respecting the confidentiality of student’s grades a lot more. However is it for the better?  Will it decrease competition and reduce ambition? Let us know in the poll below!