The awarding gaps for both of Cambridge's target student groups decreased between 2018-19 and 2019-20; in the case of Black students it nearly halved within just one year of the pandemic.
Some of the variables that may have impacted the narrowing of awarding gaps at Cambridge during the temporary shift to remote assessment include:
- change of mode of assessment from in-person to online
- change to the format of assessments, e.g. exams being open-book
- introduction of a safety net, which could have an effect because (a) in some subjects students might have better results in year 2 than in year 3 or (b) because having safety net introduced significant psychological boost to enhance performance or (c) both
- personal circumstance changes due to the pandemic
Because of the fluctuations, and the multiple factors that may have influenced them, it has been advised that the patterns of attainment by the targeted student cohorts illustrated by the examination results for the years 2018/2019 and 2029/2020 will not be reliable indicators of the awarding gap.