Cambridge University may scrap handwritten exams over bad handwriting

The UK's prestigious Cambridge University is mulling scrapping an over 800-year-old practice of handwritten exams in favour of using laptops or iPads due to the deterioration in students' handwriting.

A growing reliance on laptops has led to students' writing becoming increasingly illegible, academics said.

The move would see an end to more than 800 years of tradition after students increasingly chose to use laptops to take down lecture notes.

Cambridge University has now launched a consultation on the topic as part of its "digital education strategy", having already piloted an exam typing scheme in the History and Classics faculties earlier this year, The Telegraph reported.

Dr Sarah Pearsall, a senior lecturer at Cambridge's History Faculty who was involved with the pilot earlier this year, said that handwriting is becoming a "lost art" among the current generation of students.

"Fifteen or twenty years ago students routinely have written by hand several hours a day -- but now they write virtually nothing by hand except exams," she told the daily.
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Europeans can carry laptop on US flights; a big 'no' for Middle East

The US will not impose a ban on carry-on laptops on flights coming from Europe for now, an official spokesperson today said, days after America underlined the need to "raise the bar" on airline security, including screening certain carry-on items.

The ban is already in place for flights from certain regions of the Middle East and North Africa after intelligence reports that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is developing ways to hide explosives in batteries and battery compartments.

No laptop ban on US flights from Europe for now but the option is still on the table, Homeland Security Secretary Dave Lapan announced after a call between Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and European Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc.

"While a much-discussed expansion of the ban on large electronic devices in the cabin on flights to the United States was not announced today, the Secretary made it clear that an expansion is still on the table," Lapan said in a statement.

Lapan was referring to comments by Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly who in a call today with European Home Affairs Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos and Transport Commissioner Violeta Bulc discussed aviation security.

"Kelly affirmed he will implement any and all measures necessary to secure commercial aircraft flying to the United States - including prohibiting large electronic devices from the passenger cabin - if the intelligence and threat level warrant it," Lapan said, after the conference call between American and European leaders, during which two other items were discussed.
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