BU won’t confer honorary doctorates this year

Bangalore University (BU) has decided to skip offering the honorary doctorate during this year’s annual convocation due to shortage of time for the selection process.

The Covid-19 pandemic has delayed the varsity’s 55th annual convocation supposed to have been held in April. Now, after a delay of six months, the institution has decided to hold the convocation virtually and is searching for a chief guest.

“The selection process for honorary doctorate is lengthy. So, it’s decided that we won’t have it this year,” BU Vice-Chancellor Prof K R Venugopal said.

Officials said students who won the gold medals will be allowed to attend the convocation in person.

Explaining the elaborate selection process to confer honorary doctorate that goes up to two months, an official said: “We need to constitute a committee headed by a retired justice and invite applications from eligible candidates. After scrutiny, the shortlisted names must be sent to the Governor for finalisation.”

The varsity is eligible to confer at least three honorary doctorates every year. Two years ago, the institution did not confer honorary doctorates as the Governor did not approve the names forwarded to him at the last minute.

BU, however, is hoping to invite some big names for this year’s convocation. The list includes Infosys chairman N R Narayana Murthy, the Chief Justice of the High Court, IISc director, and ISRO chairman, among others. It has dispatched letters to find out their availability.

Each year, around 65,000 students qualify from the university. It plans to send the degree certificate to the students by post.