The supervision gap part ③ – how does your college compare?

Figures reveal how many supervision hours students can expect in Law, Maths, Land Economy, Linguistics and Medical and Veterinary Sciences

by Phelim Brady

This article is 12 years old

Thursday April 25 2013, 9:51pm

Today sees the turn of Law, Maths, Land Economy, Linguistics and Medical and Veterinary Sciences, as we release our third batch of figures on how long students spend in supervisions across the university. Alongside the statistics for Arch & Anth, Chemical Engineering, Classics, Computer Science and Economics and Engineering, English, Geography, History of Art and History, the figures highlight the disparities which exist in supervision provision at Cambridge.

Using data from the university's CamCORS system, obtained through freedom of information requests, the figures show how many hours of supervision and college classes the average student received in the 2011-2012 academic year. It should be noted that in some cases the figures may be problematic because of a number of issues, such as differences in how colleges record their data. See below for full details.

You can find the other releases here:

Arch & Anth, Chemical Engineering, Classics, Computer Science and Economics

Engineering, English, Geography, History of Art and History

MML, Music, Natural Sciences, Philosophy and PPS

Land Economy

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part IA	Part IB	Part II
Christ’s College			33.75
Churchill College			33.5
Corpus Christi College
Fitzwilliam College	47.8	45.8	35
Girton College	41.5	46	35
Gonville & Caius	41	39.33	33.67
Homerton College	47.13	33.97	37.06
Jesus College	27.83	41.67	8.5
King’s College
Lucy Cavendish College	39.3	41.3
Magdalene College	48.5	47	35
Newnham College	41.75	50.55	36.86
Peterhouse
Robinson College	40	27.88	29.53
Selwyn College	48.5	45	33.75
Sidney Sussex College	43	43	36
St Catharine’s College	39.5	44.5	34.56
Trinity College		46
Trinity Hall	40.83	56.25	40.58

	Part I & II
Downing College*	44.7

Linguistics

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part I	Part IIA	Part IIB
Christ’s College	52
Churchill College	52.5
Corpus Christi College	52.5	29
Fitzwilliam College	11	22
Girton College	27	38.5	17
Gonville & Caius	53	48.5	25.5
Homerton College	53		35.88
Jesus College	18	11
King’s College	49.5	49.5	21
Lucy Cavendish College	29.2		23.3
Magdalene College	52.5	34
Newnham College	52.17	35
Peterhouse
Robinson College
Selwyn College	52	32.75
Sidney Sussex College	52	44
St Catharine’s College
Trinity College	54	46.5
Trinity Hall	67	38

	Part I & II
Downing College	38.5

Law

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part IA	Part IB	Part II
Christ’s College	43.44	40.37	43.14
Churchill College	55.13	42.1	49.25
Corpus Christi College	21.5	44.5	38
Fitzwilliam College	36.75	44.5	35
Girton College	46.33	47.06	47.54
Gonville & Caius	40	50.9	40.85
Homerton College	43.5	52.57	48.9
Jesus College
King’s College	37.8	49.69	43
Lucy Cavendish College	37.4	29	49.02
Magdalene College	44	45	45.3
Newnham College	48.8	53.81	45.09
Peterhouse	40.04	50.75	41.63
Robinson College	41	24.72	41.47
Selwyn College	40.14	56.15	41.55
Sidney Sussex College	48	46	29
St Catharine’s College	48	39.94	42.88
Trinity College	51.35	58.52	45.2
Trinity Hall	47	51.89	37.2

	Part I & II
Downing College	42.6

Maths

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part IA	Part IB	Part II	Part III
Christ’s College	62.83	50.37	33.44	24.25
Churchill College	63.19	43.96	35.88	13.83
Corpus Christi College	32.91	25.33	32.8	25.96
Fitzwilliam College	54.2	46	35.25	26.3
Girton College	57.5	35.15	34.8	27.58
Gonville & Caius	41.92	39.77	43.94	31.69
Homerton College	44.63	28.36	37.72	33.5
Jesus College	121	94.83	94.33	21.33
King’s College	40.04	46.4	44.58	10.83
Lucy Cavendish College	46	62		9
Magdalene College	36.9	30.08	41.5	23.1
Newnham College	67.5	52.24	38.16	35
Peterhouse	48.89	48.47	50.47	10
Robinson College	51.67	29.17	39.26	9.5
Selwyn College	51.67	45.44	36.67
Sidney Sussex College	48	43	27	16
St Catharine’s College	44	43.4	33.13	31.83
Trinity College	45.02	45.02	45.52	21.85
Trinity Hall	88.8	97.75	47.92	5.5

	Part I & II
Downing College	34

Medical and Veterinary Sciences

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part IA	Part IB
Christ’s College	106.23	69.58
Churchill College	68.82	68.92
Corpus Christi College	73	30.5
Fitzwilliam College	90.7	90.5
Girton College	56.88	71.85
Gonville & Caius
Homerton College
Jesus College
King’s College	29.81	86.79
Lucy Cavendish College	38.5	46.49
Magdalene College	77	54.4
Newnham College	80.76	74.27
Peterhouse	81.83	73.43
Robinson College	47.84	58.09
Selwyn College	62.59	81.55
Sidney Sussex College	72	81
St Catharine’s College	46.98	45.69
Trinity College	77.37	21.89
Trinity Hall	95.71	91.05

	Part I & II
Downing College	59.7

*Instead of providing figures for each part, Downing College has provided a combined average for all parts of each Tripos.

In places the data is incomplete, either because figures were not supplied (when a college does not offer a course, for example) or because the data was anomalous. Some smaller Tripos courses have been excluded from our analysis. Murray Edwards College, Emmanuel College and Queens' College were the only colleges to refuse our request for this data, but a number of colleges are still yet to respond to our requests or to provide us with the data requested.

When supplying this data, colleges noted that in some cases the figures may be partially inaccurate due to a number of factors, such as differing methods of recording supervision data on the CamCORS system between colleges. A number of colleges said that this was particularly the case for some smaller courses where the cohort of students in question is relatively small. In addition, the figures will have been influenced by actions on the part of students rather than colleges, for instance if undergraduates degraded or failed to attend supervisions which were provided for them, or if they required extra classes.

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