211075 Downing Record 07 - Downing College - University of ...

e hung! I was also honoured and delighted to be elected a Fellow of the RoyalSociety and was admitted just last week.My sincere thanks to Julian Childs for all his work as President of theAssociation this year and to the Committee, especially to John Hicks for his tirelesswork as Honorary Secretary and Editor of the Newsletter, and Peter Thomson asTreasurer. Finally, my best wishes to all Members of the Association. Please stayin touch and do plan to visit us here, or at one of the reunion venues, during thecoming year.Professor Barry Everitt ScD FRSMaster’s Lodge, July 2007The Senior Tutor writes:In the year of the Bicentenary of the Laying of the Foundation Stone there hasbeen a great deal to celebrate in the College. You can read elsewhere of excitingbuilding and refurbishment plans for the College, of the successful May Ball andof various sporting and cultural successes. But at the heart of the College as anacademic institution success is measured by academic achievement and this hasbeen (as far as records and collective memory inform us) the most successful yearacademically in the history of the College.If success is judged solely by the number of firsts and distinctions obtained,then this is undoubtedly the best year ever. Ninety nine of our 400 candidateswho took University and College examinations obtained firsts and distinctions.This easily beats the previous record of 85 firsts and distinctions. And this is notbecause of grade inflation. For a number of years broadly the same number offirsts and distinctions have been awarded throughout the University. This year alarger number of Downing students have been awarded such results.This academic success is reflected throughout the cohort of students who tookexams this year. There were substantially fewer lower seconds and many of thecandidates who obtained upper seconds were ranked high in their respective classlists. This means that, on most of the measures used by the University and Colleges,Downing ranks in the top third of all the undergraduate Colleges.Of course, as in every year, there were some results which were disappointingfor individual students. There are also some subjects where there is some evidenceof consistent underperformance. But this cannot distract from the many successes.Chief amongst these is the conspicuous success of the second year in virtually everysubject, with the quality of the first year results not far behind. It is also pleasingto see a spread of firsts through many different subjects, including Archaeology andAnthropology (all 3 of the first year candidates), Chemical Engineering (3), Classics16