What degree classification did Stephen Hawking achieve at Oxford?

Stephen Hawking achieved a first-class BA degree in physics at Oxford. He studied at University College, Oxford, beginning in 1959 at the age of 17, and completed his undergraduate degree before moving on to graduate work at Cambridge.

Hawking later recalled that he spent relatively little time studying during his Oxford years, estimating about 1,000 hours across three years. His final examinations were close enough between first- and second-class honours that he had to sit an oral examination, known as a viva, with the examiners.

During the viva, Hawking reportedly told the examiners that he would go to Cambridge if awarded a First, but remain at Oxford if given a Second. They awarded him the first-class result, allowing him to begin postgraduate research in cosmology at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, in 1962.

He earned his PhD in applied mathematics and theoretical physics from Cambridge in 1966. His later career made him one of the world’s best-known theoretical physicists and cosmologists.