The Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University (JNAFAU) will confer over 6,000 bachelor’s and master’s degrees and 242 gold medals at its third convocation ceremony to be held at Shilpakala Vedika here on Wednesday, after a gap of seven years.
The degrees, gold medals and Ph.Ds will be conferred to students who completed their courses for academic years 2012-13 to 2018-19.
The convocation is the first to be held after the formation of Telangana State; it could not be held earlier as the executive council for the university after the bifurcation of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh was constituted only towards the end of 2017.
Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan will preside over the convocation while Council of Architecture president Habeeb Khan will be the chief guest. Padma Shri Kalal Laxma Goud would be conferred Ph.D for his contribution to the field of visual arts as well as fine arts education. Five doctoral theses in the faculty of Architecture and Planning will be awarded.
Sharing the details of the convocation at a media conference here on Tuesday, Vice-Chancellor Kavita Daryani Rao said the University has overhauled the academic functioning to improve research and innovation. The choice-based credit system has been introduced in the academic year 2017-18 to allow students to choose subjects from other departments. The university extended affiliation to 12 institutions with approval from government for conducting BA and B.Sc programmes in visual arts, design, film and media and gaming, interior design, fashion design, animation and VFX in view of demand for those subjects.
Ms.Kavita said the university had initiated an incubation centre in 2017 focusing on three thrust areas — rain water harvesting to educate the students as well as to offer consultancy and execution of projects for communities and individual clients; affordable art and low cost furniture.
The infrastructure on the campus has been upgraded with 20,000 sq.ft. of space and a new computer lab for animation department. The university has signed an MoU with ENSAP in Bordeaux, France, for exchange of students and faculty and to work in a common architectural studio each year.
