Mangalore University will not present any honorary doctorate degree in its 39th annual convocation on Saturday, according to Vice-Chancellor P.S. Yadapadithaya.
Addressing presspersons here on Thursday, he said that it is not mandatory that the honorary doctorate degree be presented in every convocation.
Mr. Yadapadithaya said that 14 foreign nationals, including a woman, are among 117 candidates who will be awarded with Doctor of Philosophy degrees.
There will be 10 gold medals, while there are 188 rank holders of whom 69 students have obtained first rank.
Registrar (Evaluation) P.L. Dharma said that in view of COVID-19, only Ph.D candidates, gold medallists and first rank holders will receive their degrees in person at the convocation ceremony. In all, 101 cash prizes will be sent through cheque by post to students.
In all, 11,500 candidates have applied for convocation certificates, he said.
Postal service
The Vice-Chancellor said that as all candidates who have applied for receiving convocation certificates in person will not be allowed to attend the convocation ceremony due to COVID-19 restrictions, the university will send them their certificates by post within a week.
Mr. Yadapadithaya said that the convocation ceremony will be streamed live on social media. The You Tube link is: https://youtu.be/vlZV4pfRT- S8 . And, the website link is: https://mangaloreuniversit- y.ac.in/39th-annual-convoc- ation .
The convocation will start at 11 a.m. Chairperson of Infosys Foundation Sudha Murthy will deliver the convocation address in the virtual mode.
Mr. Dharma said that of the 43,743 candidates who appeared for various examinations during 2019-20 academic year, 33,806 candidates (77.28 %) have passed.
Of the 6,657 candidates who wrote the post-graduate examinations, 96.09 % have passed and of the 36,940 students who appeared for the undergraduate examinations, 73.80 % have passed. All 29 candidates who appeared for the post-graduate diploma examinations have passed.\
No fee hike
Mr. Yadapadithaya said that the university will not hike fees for students during his tenure as Vice-Chancellor.
To a question on the controversy involving Microbiology Professor M. Jayashankar, he said that he has now been made the Director of Foreign Nationals Cell at the university which is not a statutory body, whereas the College Development Council which he was heading earlier was a statutory body from which he was removed. The issue will be discussed in the meeting of the Syndicate on Friday, he said.
