Patna, Jan. 22: Students of Patna University (PU) will no longer have to rush to college campus to check their exam results.

Starting this year, the university will send text messages to the cellphones of students, announcing their results. Those who don’t have cellphones will be able to check their result on the varsity website — www.patnauniversity.ac.in — which is slated for a re-launch on January 26.

At present, the results of PU students are put up on the examination department’s notice board and published in some vernacular dailies. This causes a lot of problem for outstation students who leave for their homes after the exams are over. Even those staying in the state capital have to make rounds of their college to check if the result has been declared.

The varsity administration is planning to start the data collection from February 10 when the final-year examination forms for all three streams — BA, BSc, BCom — are likely to come out. Students will be asked to provide their mobile number in the examination form. A database will be created, including the student’s name, roll number, class, stream and cellphone number. The examination department will have full access to the database.

PU computer department in-charge K.P. Singh said: “The students, apart from filling up other information, will also be asked to give their mobile number in the examination form.” About the format of text message to be sent to students, he said: “Till now, it has not been decided what type of SMS (short messaging service) will be sent to the students. The university is working on two types of text — each student will get information about his/her division and total marks secured in the examination through SMS or it will be a general message informing the students that their results have been uploaded on the university website.”

PU vice-chancellor Shambhu Nath Singh said: “Declaring exam results through SMS is not new. Many universities in the country have been using cellular service for such purposes. But for us it will be a big challenge to send result texts to around 26,000 students.”

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited will be the service provider for sending out the text messages to students.

Anil Sharma, a final-year student at Patna Science College, said: “It is good that the varsity is planning to declare results through SMS. Though this system is not new for students of other universities, we will be the first one in the state to benefit from this initiative.”

Besides the text messages, PU is also planning to update its website by the end of this month. Sources said the PU vice-chancellor will re-launch the website on January 26 at Patna Science College, which is hosting the Republic Day function.

PU’s official website www.patnauniversity.ac.in was deregistered few years ago for non-payment of dues. At present, if someone logs into the Patna University website, the person gets connected to the university computer centre link. Once the website is re-launched, all information relating to the varsity will be uploaded on it.