The supervision gap part ④ – how does your college compare?

Our final supervision gap instalment, with figures for MML, Music, Natural Sciences, Philosophy and PPS

by Phelim Brady

This article is 12 years old

Friday April 26 2013, 5:45pm

MML, Music, Natural Sciences, Philosophy and PPS have their day today, as we reveal the figures from the final instalment of our investigation into Cambridge's supervision gap. The statistics, obtained through freedom of information requests made to Cambridge's undergraduate colleges, demonstrate the variations between different subjects, colleges and Tripos parts in teaching hours.

While the University of Cambridge prospectus tells applicants that “it’s not the case that some are better for particular courses”, Varsity's investigation suggests that the college you choose can have a serious impact on the supervisions you receive.

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 previous releases here:

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

Engineering, English, Geography, History of Art and History

Law, Maths, Land Economy, Linguistics and Medical and Veterinary Sciences

Modern and Medieval Languages

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part IA	Part IB	Part II
Christ’s College	88.75	65.05	52.34
Churchill College	93.53	63.83	56.25
Corpus Christi College	111.91	71.14	35.34
Fitzwilliam College	71.25	75.9	52.75
Girton College	105.95	90.75	50.69
Gonville & Caius	99.83	71.3	41.47
Homerton College	107.7	84.72	46.86
Jesus College
King’s College	121.82	59.36	40.64
Lucy Cavendish College	21.4	21.4	16.45
Magdalene College	84.8	68.6	38.7
Newnham College	126.97	82.44	49.88
Peterhouse	136.5	64.66	46.16
Robinson College	109.58	52.63	32.2
Selwyn College	98.79	62.07	42.02
Sidney Sussex College	84	57	43
St Catharine’s College	92	59.94	39.95
Trinity College	96.95	66.34	52.23
Trinity Hall	128.13	88.09	57.78

	Part I & II
Downing College*	71.4

Music

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part IA	Part IB	Part II
Christ’s College	60	38.5	31.88
Churchill College	48	48	20
Corpus Christi College	51	37.75	18.25
Fitzwilliam College	53	49.75	23.75
Girton College	83.42	54.26	27.45
Gonville & Caius	64.63	51.5	20.2
Homerton College	75.51	39.75	21.09
Jesus College	85.33	44.58	26.42
King’s College	66.1	49.59	21.63
Lucy Cavendish College
Magdalene College		52.5
Newnham College	47	47.63
Peterhouse
Robinson College	55	33	26
Selwyn College	68
Sidney Sussex College	67	41	21
St Catharine’s College	64.5	47	23
Trinity College	78.42	42.58
Trinity Hall	66	24.75

	Part I & II
Downing College	40.5

Natural Sciences

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part IA	Part IB
Christ’s College	84.24	57.91
Churchill College	69.27	57.52
Corpus Christi College	90.36	54.12
Fitzwilliam College	94.3	65
Girton College	86.28	55.2
Gonville & Caius	89.78	61.56
Homerton College	92.16	63.69
Jesus College
King’s College	88.15	64.23
Lucy Cavendish College		49.41
Magdalene College	86	59.6
Newnham College	97.42	62.49
Peterhouse	91.21	68.09
Robinson College	88.89	63
Selwyn College	86.4	62.03
Sidney Sussex College	92	63
St Catharine’s College	100.08	68.93
Trinity College	81.84	62.85
Trinity Hall	85.56	62.68

	Part I & II
Downing College	49.2

Philosophy

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part IA	Part IB	Part II
Christ’s College	39.5	39	21.13
Churchill College	44.25	25	22
Corpus Christi College	39.67	30	21
Fitzwilliam College	37.5	23.3	22.4
Girton College	36	36	25.5
Gonville & Caius	39.67	138.05	114.05
Homerton College		27.83	16
Jesus College	25.33	18.5	9.17
King’s College	37.75	27.19	18
Lucy Cavendish College
Magdalene College	37	35
Newnham College	44.5	28	21.75
Peterhouse	39.25	43.5	18
Robinson College			16.5
Selwyn College		26	22.5
Sidney Sussex College	37	30	12
St Catharine’s College	38	19	21.25
Trinity College	36.25	28.5	23
Trinity Hall	39.67	33.5	22

	Part I & II
Downing College	23.7

Politics, Psychology and Sociology

Supervision hours per student, 2011-2012	Part I	Part IIA	Part IIB
Christ’s College	32.25	19.13	17.3
Churchill College	35.38	11.79	20.8
Corpus Christi College	34.01	20.06	23
Fitzwilliam College	28.3	21.9	21.6
Girton College	36.88	18.71	28.27
Gonville & Caius	38.07	20.38	21.48
Homerton College	40.44	19.3	22.54
Jesus College
King’s College	29.9	22.5	20.13
Lucy Cavendish College	33.05	14.3	22
Magdalene College	28.3	20.2	15.2
Newnham College	29.26	13.99	24.76
Peterhouse		20	18
Robinson College	24.75	15	23.5
Selwyn College	38.19	20.58	24.6
Sidney Sussex College	32	18	25
St Catharine’s College	46.17	17.42	16.3
Trinity College	29.03	21.7	15
Trinity Hall	23.75	12.07	17.08

	Part I & II
Downing College	27.5

*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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