He has formidable intellectual powers: possessor of a first-class degree, ex-president of the Oxford Union, and an ex-consultant with McKinsey.

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There was Lord Jenkins himself, then plain Woy, in possession of a first-class degree from Balliol College, Oxford, like his colleague Denis Healey.

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Miss Wells-Burr, who graduated from Bath Spa University with a first-class degree, was discovered by fire crews in her red Ford Focus in a field in Ashill.

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She graduated with a first-class degree in earth and space sciences from UCL, studied under Seymour for her PhD, and went on to forge her own career as a research fellow and most recently as a university lecturer.

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But the triumph of her story is that, together with her teenage husband, she was able to go on to Durham University, graduate with a first-class degree, and put her fine literary sensibility to use in her own beautifully crafted prose.

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The British suffragettes, who often exchanged battle tactics with their American cousins, were led by clever middle-class women such as Christabel Pankhurst (1880-1958), who gained a first-class law degree, but was barred from practising in all-male courts.

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Miss Blackman completed a first-class honours degree in education studies shortly before she died, and had spent much of her spare time caring for autistic children.

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From the outside they look like a line of gleaming Airstream trailers, especially the dome car at the rear, whose rounded windows afford passengers traveling first class a glorious 360-degree view.

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Roughly 6% of black British students got a first class honours degree at UK universities in 2011-12, compared with nearly 19% of white British students, data from the Higher Education Statistics Agency (Hesa) shows.

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