An e-mail sent out to King’s students by the college’s assistant librarian, Gareth Burgess, has revealed that History of Art papers are not the only ones that will remain unavailable over the internet.

However, the Cambridge University Students' Union have responded to this news via Twitter, stating that they hope they can resolve this issue by hosting the past papers on their website.

Tweeting Varsity, Jemma Steward, CUSU Coordinator, said: "we're gonna be looking into getting the papers hosted on our website/alternative arrangements for links to depts asap (Jemma)".

Burgess's e-mail to King's students drew attention to the fact that the JISC-funded exam papers site, which has been taken down over the course of the past week, contained past exam papers not only for History of Art but for all subjects. With exams just over one month away from some of Cambridge’s undergraduate population, such news could cause further frustration, as several faculties are reliant on the aforementioned JISC (Joint Information Services Committee) program.

The announcement comes only days after an e-mail was sent out by the Digital Services Curatorial Coordinator in the Department of Architecture informing students that “the Past Exam Paper resource (found via CamTools) was a temporary, JISC-funded pilot, which has now been discontinued (temporarily at least)".

The King’s college assistant librarian stated that the website, which was run by CARET (the University's Centre for Applied Research in Educational Technologies), "had not been updated since 2012" and "contained papers for all subjects, not just History of Art, so this move will affect a large number of students, particularly undergraduates"

Burgess further revealed that “While there is clearly considerable demand for an online past papers website in the long term, such a website will not be available for a while.”

Students, at least at King’s, are encouraged to consult catalogues of print copies of past papers for their revision efforts. 

While several faculties seem to have ‘lost’ their online past papers as a result of the discontinuation of the JISC website, it must be stressed that, at time of publication, this does not seem to have affected all subjects. Several faculties, such as the Faculty of History and the Department of Engineering, still have working links to their past exam papers on their websites.

Following the initial revelation of the removal of History of Art papers from the online database, the campaign group Whose University? (WU?) have been endeavouring to collect past papers from students, in order to create a complete catalogue accessible for all those affected. In a statement to Varsity, WU? claimed the following:

“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”

Whose University? have not yet posted a response to these developments in the availability of past papers. 

This article was updated on 18/04/15 to include CUSU's plans to make available those past papers that have been taken offline.