As many as 27,164 candidates will receive their degrees at the 13th annual convocation of the Karnataka State Open University (KSOU) here on Tuesday, Vice-Chancellor M.G. Krishnan told presspersons here on Monday. He said that 25 students would receive Ph.D degree, 59 M.Phil. degree, 38 people gold medals and 24 would receive cash prizes. As many as 15,649 women are set to receive their degrees as against 11,515 men.
Governor H.R. Bhardwaj would preside over the function. Vice-Chancellor of North Bengal University, West Bengal, Samir Kumar Das, will deliver the convocation address. Minister for Higher Education R.V. Deshpande is also expected to attend the event, Prof. Krishnan said.
In response to a question on the KSOU’s decision not to accord honorary doctorate this year, Prof. Krishnan said the first reason was that he did not get sufficient time to identify candidates and the second was that many universities had accorded the recognition to a number of candidates, which ha drawn flak.
Not conferring honorary doctorate would not amount to breaking any set tradition, he said, in reply to a question, and added that it would definitely be considered next year.
He denied that the Governor had suggested a few names for the honorary doctorate.
Action taken
Prof. Krishnan had initiated disciplinary action against two collaborative institutions in Bangalore and Belgaum where cases of examination malpractice had been detected. He had, for the first time, deputed KSOU invigilators to all regional centres across the State to check examination malpractice, Prof. Krishna said. The onus was on the collaborative institutions as the KSOU was not directly responsible.
On the infrastructure front, he said that the auditorium and the administrative block buildings, which would be unique to the city, would come up in six months.
Registrar S.N. Vikram Raje Urs, Registrar (Evaluation) K.J. Suresh and Chief Financial Officer L. Rajashekaraiah were present.
