The world- Cambridge University is considering abolishing handwritten after 800 years. University officials may ask to type their exam on a computer rather than use a . The move follows from examination markers who say they are finding test papers illegible due to poor handwriting. Academics say today's students use laptops in lectures and tutorials instead of pens. Students are losing the ability to write by hand. One academic said asking students to hand-write exams causes them physical difficulties. The muscles in their hand are not used to writing for prolonged periods of two to three hours.
A Cambridge University , Dr Sarah Pearsall, told Britain's 'Daily Telegraph' newspaper that handwriting was becoming a "lost ". She said: "Twenty years ago, students [wrote] by hand several hours a day, but now they write nothing by hand, except exams." She added: "We have been concerned for years about the declining handwriting problem. There has definitely been a downward . It is difficult for both the students and the examiners as it is and harder to read these [exam] ." Dr Pearsall says some students' handwriting is so that they had to return to the university over the summer to read their out loud to examiners who could not read their .