HPU CONVOCATION : 230 students awarded gold medals, 184 get PhD degrees

More than 350 students joined the hall of fame as they were awarded gold medals and Ph.D degrees in the presence of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the seventeenth convocation ceremony of Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla on Tuesday.

With 146 out of the 230 gold medallists being girls, they once again proved their dominance in higher education in the state.

There were at least ten girls who received more than one gold medal for grabbing the top position in different courses. A student of geography, Neha Sharma bagged four golds for her performance in MPhil, MA, Diploma in French and Advanced Diploma in French.

Among the 184 PhD holders to be conferred degrees by HPU Chancellor and Himachal Governor Prabha Rau, 72 were girls.

Delivering his address, Mukherjee, the chief guest, advocated changes in policies, resource allocation, reward systems and mindsets to reform the present structures of governance of universities that fail to preserve autonomy and promote accountability.

The finance minister recognised the excellence of female students and said: “I am delighted to see such a large number of girls earn their PhD and gold medals, surpassing their male counterparts. I am told that it is not an exception this time. I wish this trend is emulated in other parts of the country.”

The only candidate to be awarded the highest degree of DLit in Public Administration was Dr P N Gautam. The university claimed that he was the first person in all universities of north India to be conferred a DLit. Gautam is an eminent social scientist guiding research in the sector of higher education in the country.

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