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UK's Cambridge University on Tuesday announced that writtentests will now be part of the application process in one of the world's mostrenowned varsity. Students who qualify to apply to study at the premier Britishinstitution will have to pass a written exam in addition to clearing aninterview from the 2017 academic year.

The university had phased out these entrance exams in the 1980s and theirreintroduction brings it in line with the competitor University of Oxford. DrSam Lucy, the university's director of admissions, informed all major schoolsand colleges of the UK of the change in a letter issued today.

"The colleges of the University of Cambridge are introducing a systemof common format written assessments for applicants, specifically tailored toeach subject. This will provide Admissions Tutors with valuable additionalevidence of our applicants' academic abilities, knowledge base and potential tosucceed in the Cambridge course for which they have applied," she wrote.

"This move is a result of responding to teacher and student feedback, adesire to harmonise and simplify our existing use of written assessments and aneed to develop new ways to maintain the effectiveness and fairness of ouradmissions system during ongoing qualification reform," she added.

Written assessments will be undertaken either pre- interview orat-interview, depending on the course a student applies for, with the firsttests to start from November this year.

The pre-interview tests will take place at individual schools and collegesand will be held on the same day as the University of Oxford's pre-interviewtests, to make them easier for all schools and colleges to administer.

The at-interview assessments will take place during the December interviewperiod on the university premises, usually on the same day as the interviews. Theuniversity says no advance preparation will be needed, "other thanrevision of relevant recent subject knowledge where appropriate".

Most at-interview assessments will be an hour long and most pre-interviewassessments will be no longer than two hours. Courses with pre-interviewwritten assessments include medicine, economics, engineering, English, historyand natural sciences, and courses with at-interview written assessments includecomputer science, architecture, archeology, law and philosophy, among others.