In a news conference on Friday, he said 39 students would be bestowed with gold medals and 22 candidates will be awarded the cash prizes.

The degree holders will pass out from the humanities, social sciences, commerce and management sciences, education, information technology, information science and technology and library and information science. There are a total of 21 candidates who would be eligible for the PhD degrees during the convocation, he said.

Women excel

As usual, the women have beaten men by sheer numbers. Out of the total 18,328 candidates, 9,787 are women candidates. Even during the last year, the women had outnumbered men graduates. Of the 21 PhD candidates 18 are men and three are women. The Vice-Chancellor said the total number of students passing out of the university was also up by more than 5,000 candidates. Last year, 13,075 graduate and post graduates candidates received the degrees.

He said Dr Narendra Jadhav, member, Planning Commission and National Advisory Council, Government of India will be chief guest and deliver the convocation address. Governor and Chancellor of the University Hansraj Bharadwaj would preside. Dr V S Acharya, Minister for higher Education, Planning and Statistics and pro-chancellor of the University would be present.

Enrollment up

The annual  enrollment for various courses in the open university was expected to touch two lakh candidates this academic year. Presently, there are more than 1.6 lakh candidates who have taken admissions for various courses. The University has introduced semester system for the new courses in science streams and post graduate degree in Mathematics, he said and added that the KSOU would implement the semester scheme for other subjects in a phased manner. The open university has proposed to introduce B Tech, M Tech and MSc IT courses, he added.

Campus expansion

He disclosed that the University of Mysore has transferred about 15 acres of land to the KSOU on directions from the Higher Education Minister V S Acharya. The total campus area of KSOU is now up from 15 acres to 30 acres.

There are more infrastructure to come up to make to make the University ready for the upcoming challenges, and new science and technology courses.

Honoris Causa

Noted scientist, National Research Professor and Linus Pauling Research Professor C N R Rao, another National Research Professor and Lilly Jubilant Chair Prof Goverdhan Mehta, Professor and Director of Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research Dr C N Manjunath, Member, National Legal Knowledge Council and Consultant for National Human Rights Commission Prof C Raj Kumar and Chief Editor of Rashtrotthana Sahitya and ‘Utthana’ monthly S R Ramaswamy will be conferred the Honoris Causa D Litt degree in the convocation.