Students revising for upcoming exams in the History of Art tripos have received an email saying that online access to past papers is no longer available.

An email sent out by the Digital Services Curatorial Coordinator in the Department of Architecture, Emma Sherlock, advises students that "the Past Exam Paper resource (found via CamTools) was a temporary, JISC-funded pilot, which has now been discontinued (temporarily at least)". 

Jisc, formerly the Joint Information Services Committee, is a public organisation that supports UK higher education and research by providing funding for ICT infrastructure and "digital solutions" to the higher education sector. 

It is not clear why the department was relying on a temporary, external source of funding for what one art historian has told Varsity is a "crucial" resource.

The email goes on to suggest that the past papers resource "may be in the process of being transferred to UIS [University Information Services], though this has not been confirmed".

CARET, the Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies, created the CamTools service, and is hence currently responsible for the past papers project in consultation with departments. A move to UIS has been suggested as a way to centralise the organisation of past paper resources.

The email concludes by stating that no alternative access to the papers can be provided.

When contacted by Varsity, Sherlock insisted that she was not forewarned, and told us that "students have been advised to ask their course coordinators for past papers".

"The only information I have regarding the past papers is in that email," she said.

Students have not been given an estimated date when the service could resume; the email states that the measure has been taken "temporarily at least".

Campaign group Whose University?, approached by a student raising awareness of the issue, have made a public call for those with access to copies of past papers to send them in for dissemination among students. They gave Varsity the following statement:

"Our aims were twofold: first, to make the issue publicly known about with the aim to hold the department to account for the effect this will have on students; second, to use the networks of solidarity we have in place to try to crowd-source resources for students revising for their Art History exams this term.

"We have already received one paper which we will be making available and hope to source more in the coming days/weeks.

"It’s really important in situations like this to show departments that you don’t need money to share resources like this - we are doing it for free and proving there is an alternative."

@tag_freeman