259 students to get gold medals at PU convocation

Ther is good news for the academic toppers of Panjab University (PU) this year, as the University will be handing out gold medals along with degrees to the meritorious students on the same day as the Convocation ceremony. As many as 797 students will be getting their degrees, and 259 students will be awarded gold medals at the 62nd Convocation Day of the University, which is scheduled for the 10th of March this year.

Union Minister of Human Resource and Development (MHRD), Mangapati Pallam Raju will be presiding over the convocation ceremony. The list of other dignitaries from Punjab and Haryana who are to attend the ceremony has not been confirmed yet.

Authorities from within the University informed Newsline that the number of degrees awarded at the ceremony might be increased, as the list of graduating students will be updated once more in March. As per the current official record, 278 students will be awarded degrees in Ph D, and 519 degrees will be awarded to toppers of masters courses in the Arts, masters and bachelor courses in the Sciences, Law, and B Ed, among others.

Among the medalists, there will be 180 university gold medalists, 54 endowed medalists and 25 merit medalists. Besides this, the University may hand out 22 other medals which have been pending since the years of 2006, 2010 and 2012 due to various reasons.

For the past few years, PU has faced criticism for not awarding the medals on the same day as the degrees are conferred. The University used to cite the non-availability of either ministers to confer the medals, or the non-availability of gold medals.

Speaking with Chandigarh Newsline, Prof A K Bhandari from PU said that this time, the medals too will be handed out to the students on the day of the convocation. "The presence of the MHRD Minister has been confirmed, while we are yet to decide upon the list of other dignitaries who will attend the ceremony Punjab and Haryana", added Bhandari.

This year, the University will be conferring honorary degrees upon four prominent personalities who have excelled in their fields - historian Romila Thapar, Indian-born British sculptor Anish Kapoor, physicist Ashoke Sen, and mathematician M S Raghunathan.

"Work is in progress for the Convocation ceremony. The computer department has been working on the list of degrees", said the Controller of Examinations, PU, Prof Parvinder Singh.

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