For the first time in 300 years the University of Cambridge has made exam results available online to students before displaying them publicly at Senate House.

Since the 18th century, students have discovered the results of their final examinations pinned to boards outside the Senate House. However, pressure from some University groups has led to the tempering of this tradition due to fears that it is unnecessarily stressful for students.

Students are now able to access their results at 9am on the day that they are released before they are made public at 4.30pm in the traditional class lists.

The change follows a campaign by CUSU who branded the ritual as "humiliating". Ant Bagshaw, CUSU Education Officer, commented: "Posting the exam results is tradition for tradition’s sake and there is no justification in it. The big stress is other people finding out your exam results before you. There is a lot of student anxiety about it."

However, Mr Bagshaw has some reservations about the extent of the change. He said it was "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 says this would be extremely time consuming."

It is still difficult for students to erase their name entirely from the class lists. Individuals must apply to their college in advance to request for their name to be removed, and permission is only granted in exceptional circumstances, such as mental illness. Moreover, some anxiety remains regarding the publication of results of the mathematics Tripos which will continue to be read out from the balcony of Senate House.

Professor John Rallison, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education, is positive about the reform: "Changes have been implemented to try to ensure that those students who wish to do so can have access to their exam results before they are posted on the Senate House notice boards. This should enable tradition to stand, while giving students options on how they receive their results."

However, one student said: "There has really been no change. The problem was that other students are able to see your personal exam results outside Senate House and that is still going to happen. If you get a good grade its fine for everyone to know about your success, but there’s always the chance that you may not do so well. In that case, you want the results to be as private as possible."