Of the 22 engineering examination results yet to be declared, most of them pertain to the BE semester VIII (old and revised courses) and BE semester VII courses (old and revised). This, despite the stipulated deadline of a maximum 45 days -- within which results are to be declared -- having lapsed.

The extent of the delay can be gauged from the fact that some of the Semester VIII (old course) results, which were declared in early April, were almost three months late. Some of the Semester VII (regular) results were declared in the first week of April, over two monthslate.

While the delay is almost an annual affair, university sources say the problem has worsened this year as there has been no dean for the Faculty of Engineering and Technology since December 1998.

Moreover, the Board of Studies for engineering was divided into five separate boards for administrative reasons in December last year but elections to the new panels are yet to be held. In the interim, the university has appointed an ad hoc three-member committee for each board, which selects the panel of examiners. Worse, for both the university and colleges, there is an acute shortfall of examiners against the 1:60 ratio. Many subjects do not have even a single examiner, sources say.

Concurs Pro Vice-Chancellor Dr Naresh Chandra, ``There is a shortage of examiners. For instance, most of them in the computer and electronics fields are professionals.'' However, the absence of a dean has not affected the faculty's functioning, he claims adding that members for the new boards are being selected.

Also, formany subjects, there are no teachers, only visiting faculty members, which makes coordination extremely difficult.