Students' overall grades for their degrees in most of the courses in the college had previously been displayed on both the noticeboards and an internal website within the college, along with students' names.

However, from next year, students will be identified only by their student numbers.

The college was responding to complaints from students who were unhappy that their grades could be seen by classmates.

A spokesperson for Trinity explained:

"TCD strives to protect the privacy of students and is committed to improving it. The measure of publishing students' final year results by number is another means in achieving this."

There had been numerous complaints in recent years to the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner about displaying the results, which some people claimed was a breach of an individual's privacy. Although these complaints were not upheld, a spokesperson for the office said it supported Trinity's move away from making the results public.

"The methods of publication of exam results have been the subject of complaints to the office in the past and while we are aware of the traditional method in some institutions of placing such results on a noticeboard, we would welcome the approach of Trinity."