Higher Education Minister, 21 Senate members stay away from Periyar University convocation

Periyar Univ. holds 22nd convocation; Governor presents degrees & medals. Minister & 21 Senate members boycott due to withholding of honorary doctorate to former Marxist leader. Vice-Chancellor says varsity has synthetic athletic track, 31 MoUs & 100 satellite research centres. Director stresses need to re-discover education system & importance of women's empowerment.

Minister for Higher Education K. Ponmudy and 21 Senate members of the Periyar University stayed away from its 22nd convocation held here on Friday. At the function, Governor and University Chancellor R.N. Ravi presented degree certificates to students.

The Minister, who is the Pro-Chancellor of the varsity, had boycotted a couple of other university convocation ceremonies in the recent weeks, protesting against the Governor for withholding nod to a decision of the Madurai Kamaraj University to confer honorary doctorate to former Marxist leader N. Sankaraiah.

The Governor presented degrees to 153 Ph.D. candidates and 104 gold medals to UG and PG graduates. As many as 44,524 students were awarded degrees in absentia.

Delivering the welcome address, Vice-Chancellor R. Jagannathan said that the varsity was the only State-run university with a synthetic athletic track, constructed at a cost of ₹9.66 crore with a contribution of ₹7 crore from Khelo India funding.

Periyar University is also one of six institutions selected to implement a model vocational programme assessment and certification under the Skill India portal, he added.

He further said that the varsity had signed 31 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Indian institutions and two with foreign institutions to establish 100 satellite research centres across the country.

Delivering the convocation address, G. Aghila, Director of the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, stressed the need to re-discover the education system. Higher education increases our capacity to solve complex social, economical, and environmental problems, she said.