The proportion of First Class results being achieved in Honours examinations has increased by the largest proportion in over 50 years.

Class results for exam Parts taken in 2016, which were released on Wednesday, reveal that 28.2 per cent of students achieved Firsts, a 2.1 per cent increase on the previous year. The proportion of Firsts attained has now risen every year since 2009.

These results reinforce a long-standing trend of an increasing number of Firsts awarded, which has been steadily climbing in recent decades.

In 1960, the earliest year for which data are available, 10.3 per cent of Honours exam results were Firsts, 17.9 per cent less than in this year. However, the proportion of Thirds awarded in 1960 was far higher, at 22.1 per cent as opposed to 2016’s 2.2 per cent. Over the past 56 years, the proportion of 2:1s awarded has also increased dramatically, rising from 24.1 per cent in 1960 to 53.3 per cent this year. The proportion of 2:2s attained has fallen markedly, from 35.5 per cent to an all-time low of 10.3 per cent.  

In classified Tripos examinations, men continued to do better than women when it comes to gaining the top marks: men gained approximately 62.4 per cent of the Firsts awarded this year.

Furthermore, of all the results achieved by men, 31.6 per cent were classed as Firsts, compared with 22.7 per cent for women. This was similar to the trend seen in 2015.

Also of note was that of all classified undergraduate examination results for men, the percentage of firsts was higher than the equivalent statistic for women at all mixed colleges. Graduate colleges were not included in the results. This marked a changed compared with last year, when women beat men in some colleges.

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There was also some variation when analysing by ethnicity. Comparing all undergraduate examination results, the highest percentage of Firsts as a percentage of all results for an ethnic group was among Chinese students, 28.6 per cent of whom gained Firsts.

The lowest proportion of Firsts for an ethnic group with over 100 students taking exams was among Black or Black British Africans, 12.3 per cent of whom got the top mark. They were also awarded the highest proportion of Thirds.

A University spokesperson did not provide any comment in time for publication.

Correction: an earlier version of this article said “Men achieved a higher proportion of Firsts in all of the mixed colleges with the exception of the mature and grad colleges”. This has been corrected to say “Also of note was that of all classified undergraduate examination results for men, the percentage of firsts was higher than the equivalent statistic for women at all mixed colleges. Graduate colleges were not included in the results. This marked a changed compared with last year, when women beat men in some colleges.”