How Do You Get Yours?

This week saw students able to gain access to their exam results online BEFORE they were posted publicly at the Sentate House.

Academics have bowed to pressure from students and agreed to make exam classes available on CamSIS half a day before they appear at the Senate House.

Most 3rd year Natscis and Architects were able to view their results online yesterday before the public class lists were posted at 4.30pm.

CUSU welcomed the change from the ''stressful'' and ''humiliating'' tradition but said the system was still flawed.

It is still ''extremely difficult'' for students to remove their names altogether from the glass-fronted notice boards on the Senate House. Only students with "mitigating circumstances" are able to become exempt.

Results from the Mathematical Tripos, Cambridge's oldest examination, are still going to be read out loud from the balcony in the Senate House at 9am on Thursday morning.  Traditionally, a spoon was dangled down from the balcony above the lowest scoring Mathmo.

Sam Wakeford, CUSU Education Officer said it was a ''move in the right direction'' but more change was needed.

He said: ''We are pleased that the university have started making changes to the way students receive their results but we would like to see more in the coming years.

''Having a few hours between a student receiving a result and then it being pasted on the board is better than the old system but we feel it is not enough.

''We are campaigning for a full 48 hours between results being sent to students and then being made public and are hoping this will be implemented next year.

''We also believe students should have the right to withdraw from class lists so their results do not get displayed publicly, but the university say this would be extremely time consuming.

James Smith, 20, a second-year Geography student from Girton College said the changes were ''not good enough''.

He said: 'I don't think results should be made public at all, it's your own private information and should only be given to who you choose to tell.

''In this highly competitive environment it can be really embarrassing if you don't get the results you were expecting.''

Professor John Rallison, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, said the new system would respect tradition.

He said:  ''This should enable tradition to stand, while giving students options on how they receive their results''  yet failed to explain why it was so difficult for student's names to be removed from the list.