Bhagalpur, Dec. 2: Students of Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University have taken the protest path to accelerate the publication of their pending results.

Sources said though undergraduate first- and second-year examinations for the 2011 batch were conducted four months back. The results are yet to be published.

The results of the 2010 batch final-year were published in December last year after a delay of nine months. As an effect of the delay, students have been unable to apply for postgraduate courses or jobs.

Members of All India Students’ Association, Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad and Students’ Federation of India, as well as unaffiliated students have started to staged dharnas and protests on the varsity campus to prod the authorities to speed up the process.

The frequency of students’ protest has interrupted the regular function of the varsity.

Madhulika, a final-year economics student, said: “I have been waiting eagerly for the result, as I want to take admission in a university outside the state in December. But the delay has thrown a spanner in my works.”

“The delay in results will obviously push back the session. That would affect our career plans,” said Ankit Anand, a second-year history student. “Those who have planned to take admission in postgraduate courses in other universities or professional courses might end up losing a year.”

A source said more than 1,000 students were waiting for their results.

Officials in the examination department, however, claimed that the number was lesser.

K.N. Dubey, the vice-chancellor (VC) of Tilka Manjhi Bhagalpur University, told The Telegraph: “Most of the results that are pending are of final-year students. We are trying to speed up the process of publishing them.”

Asked why the results had been delayed, he said: “The cause of the problem is errors in computation of results. The students also made mistakes while filing up the optical marks reader sheets.”

A source in the examination department corroborated the VC’s claim.

“The result of the 2011 batch has been delayed because students and teachers made mistakes in filling up optical marks reader sheets. Around 70 results of students of 2008, 2009 and 2010 batches are also pending besides 300 of this year,” the source said.

Ramashis Purvey, the controller of examinations, said: “We are doing the work on a war footing. We are trying to publish the results as soon as possible.”