Thousands of pharmacy and nursing students across the State, harried by delayed examination results, now have a flicker of hope. If Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) plans to speed up the evaluation process the results could be out in two weeks. 
To begin with, the varsity has arranged for speedy pick-up and delivery of answer scripts from various examination centres. Moreover, in order to quicken the pace of the practical examination, the varsity has divided the State into five examination zones: Bangalore, Mangalore, Mysore, Gulbarga and Belgaum.
As the RGUHS Registrar (Evaluation) Dr S Sacchidanand put it, “the exams in these zones will be conducted on different dates, so that a faculty member from other zones can be an external examiner.”
The varsity has also proposed to get answer scripts evaluated by eligible evaluators in the department. “For example, if a department has four lecturers one of them will be an examiner and the other three will be eligible examiners,” he said. Another key plan is to send answer scripts to the internal and external examiners, during the practical examination, on the lines of medical and dental courses.
Results are often delayed by over two months due to the large number of Nursing and Pharmacy colleges and inadequate college-level staff. In the words of the varsity registrar, there are about 330 affiliated nursing colleges. For the first year alone, the total number of students would come up to 20,000. Here’s more statistics to gauge the gravity of the problem:
“There are nearly eight papers in the nursing course excluding practical in the first year. The varsity receives more than one lakh answer scripts from first year students itself. Together with the 2nd, 3rd and 4th year students the number of answer scripts would be more than two lakhs. Since there is a dearth of teachers in nursing, the valuation process takes time,” the registrar explained.
Practical exams for nursing are usually spread over two to three weeks, as the students from different colleges are clubbed. “Thus, it takes over two months to announce the results for these courses,” he admitted. However, he added that the university wants to announce the results the way it's done for medical and dental courses. 
Medical course results, he said, are announced within a month after the exams. There are about 42 colleges in the State, each with an intake of about 100 to 150 students.
“Practical examinations are held after theory exams and there will be a week’s gap between these two exams. The teachers will evaluate the answer scripts during the practical exams. By the end of the practical, evaluation of theory paper would be almost completed and within a few days the results are announced," he explained.