Trinity 2:2 Hit List?
STUDENTS AT RISK of getting 2:2s at Trinity will get sent down, according to rumours at the college. Yet the Academic Administrator, Katie Andrews, denied that this could be the case, arguing it was "against the policy in the college handbook".
Some students have heard talk of a "hit-list" of those the college believe to be underperforming. The possibility of weekly interviews for academic underachievers - with the threat of being thrown out always hanging over the interviewee - is the major worry.
Miss Andrews did not comment on the details of Trinity's academic discipline, but admitted that students predicted to get 2:2s were being "monitored more closely". Undergraduates are "accepted on the hope that they will get a 2:1", and reputedly "2:2s come about through accident".
Lower seconds seem to be an "accident" that has happened more recently at Trinity. In this year's Norrington Table, Trinity slid five places to trail arch rivals Balliol yet again. While over one in ten of Trinity's finalists got 2:2s or below last year, the real deficit was in the number of students getting firsts - half the number at Balliol.
The plan to boost Trinity's performance is thought to have slipped out at a Governing Body meeting last week.
JCR President Marc Davies said: "This is a rumour that I've heard from fellow students." But he was unable to verify or deny its truth. He promised: "I am seeking to confirm the college's stance on this issue and would be very concerned if the rumours are true."
No one else at Trinity was prepared to comment.
12th Oct 2000