The 800-year-old practice of handwritten exams at UK's prestigious Cambridge University might soon be replaced by laptops or iPads as the university is considering scrapping of handwritten exam papers due to students’ handwriting becoming increasingly illegible.

The deterioration in students’ handwriting is attributed to the growing reliance on laptops. The students use laptops even to take down lecture notes.

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

 Dr. Sarah Pearsall, a senior lecturer at Cambridge's History Faculty stated that handwriting is becoming a "lost art". About twenty years ago, students routinely wrote by hand several hours a day -- but now they write virtually nothing by hand except exams.

She said that the declining handwriting problem has existed for years and it was becoming very hard for examiners to decipher the illegible handwriting. Many a time, students with illegible writing are forced to return their college during the summer holidays to read their answers aloud in the presence of two university administrators.

She appreciated the University’s efforts to reforms its examination practices.