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UK degree
classification calculators
Each university’s own algorithm, read from its published regulations.
Read this first: there is no single UK degree calculator. The 70 / 60 / 50 / 40 boundaries hold across England and Wales, but the algorithm that produces the mark you compare against them is not: universities differ on which years count and how heavily, whether your weakest credits are dropped, whether two methods are run and the better one taken, and where the boundary actually sits. At LSE there is no single mark at all — the class is decided by how many of your eighteen classification marks reach it, and in Scotland the boundaries themselves are different — Glasgow marks on a 22-point scale where a First starts at 17.5. A calculator that ignores this will tell some students they have a 2:1 when they do not.
What do I need for a First?
Every calculator here also works backwards. Enter the marks you have so far and each page shows the mark you need in your remaining modules for a First, a 2:1 and a 2:2, using that university’s own algorithm — its year weights, best-credits rules and secondary routes. The same marks so far can need very different final-year marks at different universities, which is why there is no general answer. Oxford and Cambridge are not included: neither publishes a classification algorithm a calculator can run.
How they compare
The same marks can give different classes at different universities. This is what each one actually does:
| University | Years counted | Where a First starts | At the boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| UCL | Y1 best 90 cr (w1), Y2 best 90 cr (w3), Y3 all (w5) | 69.50% | 68.50% also gives a First if at least half your final-year credits are 70%+ |
| Warwick | Y2 and Y3, 50:50 on many courses (set per course) | 70% | Within 2.0% below a boundary the Board reconsiders — a judgement, not automatic |
| Manchester Met | Better of: L5 25% + L6 75%, or L6 alone | 70% | No published uplift; the two-method rule does the work instead |
| Manchester | Y1 0 or 10%, then 33/67 or 30/60 — your school chooses | 70% | A rule can also move a class down if too few final-year credits reach 40% |
| Leeds | Y2 and Y3, 1 : 2 | 69.5% in effect | Anything within 0.5 of a boundary is lifted to it automatically |
| Bristol | Years 2 and 3 at 0:40:60 or 0:25:75 — your faculty decides, with Psychological Science carved out | 70 after rounding to a whole number (68 via the secondary rule) | 68–69 gives a First if half your credits, weighted by credit and year, are at 70+ |
| Sheffield | Levels 5 and 6, 33.3 : 66.7 | 69.5 | 1.5 below a boundary is raised if half your counting credits are already in the higher class |
| Cardiff | Levels 5 and 6; 30 : 70 or 40 : 60 — set per programme | 70% (68% via the Secondary Rule) | 68–69 gives a First only with 120 credits at 70%+, at least 60 of them at Level 6 |
| King’s | Years 2 and 3, pooled at 2 : 3 | 70% (68% via the 2% rule) | 68 / 58 / 48 upgrades automatically with 60 final-year credits in the higher class |
| Nottingham | Parts I and II, 33 : 67 | 70% (69 via the borderline rule) | 69 / 59 / 49 only, raised on two thirds of final-stage credits or of both stages |
| Birmingham | Stages 2 and 3, 25 : 75 | 70% (68.0 unrounded via the algorithm) | 68.0–69.5 unrounded, and needs 120 credits in the higher class, 60 at Stage 3, plus the project |
| LSE | Years 2 and 3 in full; year one as one averaged mark, counted twice | No percentage — ten marks of 70+ out of eighteen | Eight or nine marks of 70+ and an aggregate of 1,180; no rule based on being close |
| Queen Mary | All three years, 1 : 3 : 6 — the first year counts | 70.0% | 68.5–69.9 is raised where at least half your final-year credits are 70%+; none at the 40.0 border |
| Glasgow | Junior and Senior Honours (years 3 and 4), usually equal | 17.5 on the 22-point scale — not a percentage | 17.1–17.4 is in no band; half your weighted profile at A grades decides it. No Board discretion at all |
| Edinburgh | Both honours years, pooled by credit (weights vary by programme) | 70% | The mean is not rounded, so 69.6 is a 2:1; within 2% the Board must consider you, but sets its own criteria |
| St Andrews | Both Honours years, 3000 level and above, credit-weighted | A mean of 16.5 on the 20-point scale | 16.0–16.4 is a First if your median reaches 16.5; no lift at all at the 7.0 pass line |
| Nottingham Trent | Level 6, plus Level 5 at 20% on courses that count it | 12.5 on the 0–16 grade point scale — not a percentage | No borderline at all. Instead a majority route: more than half your credits at the class or above |
| Sheffield Hallam | Level 5 at 25% with Level 6 at 75%, or Level 6 alone — whichever is higher | 70%, or 68.01% with 70%+ in 60 Level 6 credits | The worst 20 credits at each level are discarded, until 2 November 2026 |
| Portsmouth | Level 5 at 40% with Level 6 at 60%, or Level 6 alone — whichever is higher | 70 as a whole number, so a mean of 69.5 gets there | The worst 20 credits at each level are discounted. No borderline rule since 2025 |
| Coventry | No year weighting at all — three top-slices of one pool of passed credits | 70 after rounding to a whole number | Failed modules are absent from the pool rather than averaged in. No borderline rule |
| Northumbria | Level 6 and Level 5 at 60:40, or Level 6 alone — whichever is better | 70 after rounding to a whole number | Best 100 credits per level; 2% borderline lifted by half your graded Level 6 credits |
| Leeds Beckett | Level 5 at 25% and Level 6 at 75% — one calculation, no alternative route | 70% on the best 100 credits per level | 2% borderline lifted by half your final-level credit — and it applies at the third boundary too |
| Birmingham City | Level 5 at 40% and Level 6 at 60%, on the best 100 credits at each | 70 after rounding to a whole number | A one percent band, promoted automatically on half of ALL 200 contributing credits |
| Queen’s Belfast | Stages 1, 2 and 3 at 10:30:60 — the first year counts | 70 on a programme mark that is TRUNCATED, never rounded up | Within 1%, the Predominance Rule scores modules by stage weight: 300 of 600 wins |
| Ulster | Level 5 at 30% and Level 6 at 70%; pre-2024/25 intakes also got final year alone | 70% on the weighted average | A 2.5% promotion band — the widest here — on half your Level 6 credits |
| Bangor | Level 5 and Level 6 weighted 1:2; Level 4 does not count | 70 after rounding to a whole number | 2% borderline that must be applied: Level 6 average with half its credits, or two thirds of all credits |
| Aberystwyth | A cascade by rank — best 80 Level Three credits at weight 3, next best 80 at 2, the rest at 1 | 70 after rounding to a whole number | 1% window that shall be applied: half of Part Two, or 80 of the final 120 credits |
| Cardiff Met | Best 100 Level 6 credits at 0.7 with the next best 100 at Level 5 or above at 0.3, or Level 6 alone — your programme decides | 70 on the rounded award mark | Two tiers: automatic within 1%, and three alternative criteria within 2% |
| Swansea | Banding by rank — best 80 Level 6 credits at weight 3, then 40 + 40 at weight 2, the rest at 1 | 70 with no rounding at all | 2% window, but the Principles are considered by the Board rather than applied automatically |
| USW | One 180-credit pool — best 60 at Level 5 with all 120 at Level 6, or Level 6 alone | 69.5, half a point below the round number | No borderline rule at all — the half-point thresholds are the leniency |
| Wrexham | Levels 5 and 6 at 30:70, or Level 6 alone — whichever is higher | 70 after rounding to a whole number | 2% band needing all four conditions, and it reaches down to the Third at 38 |
Different algorithms, different universities
No two of these 31 work the same way, and between them they cover the patterns used across the sector:
- A single weighted average with a borderline zone — Warwick.
- Best of two methods, whichever favours you — Manchester Met.
- Your school picks the weighting — Manchester; your faculty picks it at Bristol; your programme picks it at Cardiff.
- Thresholds off the round number, plus a credit-proportion test — UCL, where a First starts at 69.50% and your best 90 credits count in Years 1 and 2; and Sheffield, where a First starts at 69.5 and a Third at 44.5.
- An automatic lift at the boundary — Leeds, where anything within 0.5 of a boundary is raised to it without a Board deciding anything; and King’s, where 68, 58 and 48 are upgraded automatically on a 60-credit condition.
- A secondary rule that counts credits rather than proportions — Cardiff needs 120 credits at 70%+ with 60 of them at Level 6, so half your credits in the higher class is not necessarily enough.
- One pooled calculation rather than a year-by-year average — King’s, which multiplies every credit by its year weight in a single sum.
- Two alternative borderline routes, either one enough — Nottingham, where a rounded 69, 59 or 49 must be raised if two thirds of your final-stage credits or two thirds of both stages together are already in the higher class.
- A borderline judged on the unrounded mark — Birmingham, where 67.6 rounds to 68 and still gets no borderline consideration, and where being raised needs three conditions at once including the final-year project.
- No weighted average at all — LSE, which classifies on how many of eighteen classification marks reach a class, using the aggregate only as a second route when you have eight or nine rather than ten. Two students with the same average can be classified differently there, and failed courses move the award down a class.
- Two figures, not one — St Andrews, which computes the credit-weighted mean and median of your Honours grades on a 20-point scale. A mean of 16.0–16.4 is a First only if the median reaches 16.5, so two students with the same average can be classified differently — and there are no discretionary border zones at all.
- An unrounded mean — Edinburgh, where course marks are rounded to whole numbers but the overall average is not, so 69.6 stays 69.6 and is a 2:1. Its 2% borderline zone must be considered by the Board, but Edinburgh deliberately sets no university-wide test for being raised.
- No percentages at all — Glasgow, the first Scottish university here, which grades on a 22-point band scale (A1 is 22, H is 0) and classifies on the grade point average of years three and four. A First starts at 17.5, the bands have deliberate gaps filled by your weighted grade profile, and Exam Board discretion was abolished outright in 2021–22.
- A first year that actually counts — Queen Mary, where the three years are weighted 1 : 3 : 6 rather than the first being discarded. The same marks that give a First elsewhere can give a 2:1 there, and there is no borderline consideration at all at the 40.0 pass border.
More universities will be added to this framework. A university gets a page only once its own regulations have been read in full.
Oxford and Cambridge: explained, not calculated
Both are deliberately pages rather than calculators, because neither publishes an algorithm a calculator could apply. Oxford sets its conventions per Final Honour School and rescales marks paper by paper; Cambridge now publishes a weighting for each Tripos but leaves the class boundaries to each Exam Board, every year. Both pages explain how the systems actually work and point you at the document that decides your own result:
- Oxford degree classification explained — University Standardised Marks, conventions per Final Honour School, and rules about individual papers.
- Cambridge degree classification explained — the Tripos, the Overall Degree Classification, and why 70 is not a boundary.
See also
The UK grading scale page explains what the marks and classes mean, and UK grade to US GPA gives a planning estimate for applications abroad.