A focus on final-year exams at Oxbridge could be disadvantaging female students who are “less likely to take risks” and suffer from premenstrual syndrome (PMS), a report suggests.

A paper published by the Higher Education Policy Institute (Hepi) think tank explores possible reasons why men are more likely to secure a first-class degree at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge.

Across UK universities females generally outperform their male peers in graduating with first-class and upper second-class undergraduate degrees.

But almost all courses at Oxford and Cambridge have a first-class degree awarding gap favouring men, according to the report.

In 2022/23, the percentage of female students at Cambridge gaining first class undergraduate examination results was 22.4 per cent – 8.3 percentage points below male students (30.7 per cent).

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The University of Oxford has a first-class degree gender attainment gap of around 8.5 percentage points.

The paper – written by parliamentary researcher and University of Cambridge graduate Famke Veenstra-Ashmore – said a combination of Oxbridge institutions’ history, structure and examination procedures “produce a system which favours men at the highest degree classification”.

It suggested that the tendency for final-year examination-based assessment methods to determine the overall grade for undergraduate Oxbridge degrees could be disadvantaging women as they are “less likely to take risks”, suffer from PMS and may be more likely to perform highly in coursework.

The analysis, which looked at the percentage of male and female students achieving top degrees by different courses, suggested that the largest gaps in favour of men were in Theology at Cambridge (43.3 percentage points) in 2023/24 and Classics at Oxford (29 percentage points) in 2021/22.

Rose Stephenson, director of policy and advocacy at Hepi, said: “The universities of Oxford and Cambridge have historically been bastions of male privilege.

“Cambridge did not award degrees to women until 1948, and it is disappointing to see gender inequality is still baked into the system.

“I urge colleagues at these institutions to read this report and take urgent action.”

Professor Martin Williams, pro-vice-chancellor (education) at the University of Oxford, said: “The University is committed to addressing gaps in degree outcomes where they exist and has set a target to eliminate the current gap between our male and female undergraduate students by 2030.

“Progress has been made in some subject areas, but the reasons for this gap are varied and highly complex.

"We are working hard to understand this issue through extensive engagement with students, and are introducing measures including flexible teaching, mixed assessment methods, study skills support, as well as enhanced data provision to enable us to better target support.”

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About the author  

Toby is a senior reporter who has a particular interest in covering planning and local government. 

He joined in September 2024 having been a reporter at the Hampshire Chronicle for three years. 

Toby studied at the University of Brighton and can be found on X through the handle @JournoToby