30,966 students to receive degrees at Mysore varsity convocation

A total of 30,966 students will be conferred with various degrees at the 106th annual convocation of the University of Mysore, scheduled to be held on January 5.

Of the total candidates, 18,612 (60%) are women while 12,354 (39.89%) are men.

As many as 449 candidates will receive PhD degrees this year. Of them, 211 are women and 238 are men.

Sharing details at a press conference here on January 3, Vice-Chancellor N.K. Lokanath said that Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot will preside over the convocation, which will begin at 11.30 a.m. Former ISRO chairman S. Somanath will deliver the convocation address, while Minister for Higher Education M.C. Sudhakar will also be present.

Prof. Lokanath said honorary doctorates will be conferred on film director and producer S.V. Rajendra Singh Babu, retired bureaucrat T. Shyam Bhat, and educationist P. Jayachandra Raju. “The awardees were finalised by the Governor’s office based on the list provided by the University,” he explained.

At the convocation, 442 medals and 197 cash prizes will be distributed to 213 meritorious candidates across all five faculties, of whom 158 are women.

Prof. Lokanath said 5,796 candidates will be awarded master’s degrees, including 3,551 women (61.26%). Bachelor’s degrees will be conferred on 24,721 candidates, including 14,850 women (60.07%).

This year, a new faculty — the faculty of engineering — has been added to the convocation. As many as 140 candidates will receive undergraduate degrees from this faculty, including 71 women.

The highest number of gold medals has been bagged by Aditi from MSc Chemistry. She also won eight cash prizes.

While the Governor will symbolically present degrees to select candidates during the morning session at Crawford Hall, the detailed presentation of degrees will be held in the afternoon session there at 3 p.m. Excelsoft Technologies Limited chairman and managing director D. Sudhanva will be the chief guest at the session.

Pension issue

Responding to queries on the pension issue, the Vice-Chancellor said a sum of ₹20 crore had been mobilised from internal sources to clear the dues. However, the problem persists as the university lacks adequate funds to regularly pay pensions to retired employees following the reduction in government grants since the COVID-19 pandemic.

He added that the university’s revenue had declined significantly as its jurisdiction had been reduced to Mysuru district following the formation of new universities, while expenditure remains the same. “We hope the government will address the issue, as universities are struggling to meet the expenditure under the present circumstances,” he said.