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Record results for Hertford finalists

20 August 2020

Congratulations are in order as this year’s final-year students smash all records to bring home outstanding results, with an unprecedented 50% achieving a first-class degree.

61 students were awarded a first-class degree with a further 58 securing a 2.1, representing 97% of our final-year cohort. These phenomenal results are the college’s best in many years, and are a testament to our students’ hard work, resilience and determination.

We are delighted that our finalists have performed so well in such challenging circumstances. After Covid-19 forced them to leave the college for the last time in March, the students have been studying virtually from home, with their final term of teaching and revision entirely online. They also had to get used to a brand-new form of online examination and missed out on the traditional celebrations that usually mark the end of a degree.

Thanks are due to our tutors and lecturers who moved teaching online so adeptly, as well as to our dedicated support staff, including Lynn Featherstone, Sue Finch, Julia Howe and Kim Jones in the Academic Office; our indefatigable Librarian, Alice Roques; and Dr Catherine Sloan, who has supported individual students in her role as Porter Fellow for Academic Skills.

In addition to college prizes for first-class marks and the highest-performing student in each course, many Hertford students won coveted University prizes against stiff competition from all the colleges:

Archaeology & Anthropology
  • Phillipa Kent (3rd year) achieved the top first and top dissertation in Archaeology & Anthropology across the University.
Biochemistry
  • Samuel Harris (4th year) won the Gibbs Prize Proxime Accessit for meritorious work in Part I & II exams of the Final Honour School of Biochemistry.
  • Thomas Vanderstichele (4th year) won the Gibbs Book Prize for best performance in Part I & II exams of the Final Honour School of Biochemistry.
Computer Science & Philosophy
  • Shashvat Shukla (3rd year) won the Gibbs Prize for Computer Science papers and the Gibbs Prize for Philosophy papers in the Parts A & B of Computer Science & Philosophy.
  • Joar Skalse (4th year) won the Hoare Prize for best overall performance in the Final Honour School of Computer Science & Philosophy, awarded by Oxford Department of Computer Science.
Economics & Management
  • Five of our E&M finalists were ranked in the top seven students across the University’s whole E&M cohort.
English Language & Literature
  • Fenella Sentance (3rd year) won a Gibbs Prize for Distinguished Performance, awarded by Oxford’s Faculty of English.
History
  • Jennifer Coulton (3rd year) won the Joan Thirsk Prize for the best thesis on medieval history, awarded by Oxford’s History Faculty.
Mathematics
  • Alexander Ober (4th year) won the Institute of Mathematics and its Applications (IMA) Prize in recognition of excellent examination performance, awarded by Oxford’s Mathematical Institute.
Medicine
  • Amelia Bowman (3rd year) won the Wronker Grant for excellent performance in the Honour School of Medical Sciences, awarded by Oxford’s Medical Sciences Division.
Modern Languages
  • George Newton (1st year) won the Camões Prize for best essay by a beginner of Portuguese in higher education, awarded by the Portuguese Embassy in London.
  • Ethan Turner-Freeman (4th year) won the Phillipa of Lancaster Portuguese Prize for the best performance in the Final Honour School of Portuguese, awarded by Oxford’s Faculty of Medieval & Modern Languages.
Physics
  • Kriti Joshi (4th year) won the Metaswitch Prize for the best use of software in an MPhys project, awarded by Oxford’s Department of Physics.