ISLAMABAD, Sept 25: Frequent delays in the announcement of results and dispatching of result cards of Allama Iqbal Open University’s various academic programmes are causing inconvenience to the students, official sources told Dawn here on Thursday.

As a result, long queues of students, both boys and girls, can be seen at the inquiry counters of the university.

They said over the last couple of years, the examination branch of the university was finding its hard to meet deadlines with regard to the announcements of results, particularly of programmes such as matriculation, FA, BA, MA, CT, PTC, BEd.

As a result, the university administration was forced to extend the admission dates of its new semesters and, in turn, the whole academic sessions got delayed.

Students, who were in their final semesters and wanted to continue their studies, suffered the most as they could not get admission to the next course on time.

Likewise, the sources said, issuance of duplicate result card to the students, who visited the university main campus in Islamabad from far-flung areas, consumed a whole day. Whereas, according to routine practice in the past, it was the matter of one-and-a-half-hour.

They further added that issuance of blank certificates/degrees to the in charge of the section concerned of the examination branch without demanding utilization report of the previously issued blank documents was still in practice.

In addition to this, there is no permanent result record of viva/thesis in the examination department, due to which problems like fake results at postgraduate level are being faced.

Objection letters to the students on submitting their application for grant of certificates/degrees are still being issued with the signatures of a clerk despite the federal ombudsman’s decision that an officer of at least 17th grade should check the documents, the sources said.

When contacted, examination branch controller Dr Faqir Mohammad said the AIOU, the only distance-learning university of the country, catered for hundreds of thousands students, hence, at times, delay in the result was not something unusual.

“We announce the result of every programme within three months despite the fact that the number of students the AIOU is dealing with is far more than those of other public sector universities of the country.”

Replying to a question, he said the university had set up more than one inquiry counters to facilitate its students. He maintained that with every passing day, the number of AIOU students was increasing and the university was facing a number problem in this regard.