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For once, I am not sympathetic to Laurie Taylor's view of third-class degrees ( THES , September 12). At a college that no longer exists, we had the category of "Honourable Third" - some determined but not very gifted individual would slog through the whole of their final year and just manage to achieve honours rather than a pass degree.

Our relief at an average score of 41 or even 42 per cent overall was tangible and sometimes quite euphoric. It was, in its way, as valid as any Oxford congratulatory first and reflected as well on the teachers as the taught.

Tim Connell
City University, London