Government urges CSMU to focus on quality of research work

The 25th convocation ceremony of Chhatrapati Shahuji Maharaj University was held on Friday. Governor and chancellor of state universities BL Joshi said: "I hope the university is conscious that it does not become a mere degree awarding authority and focus on the quality of research work."

Addressing the 25th convocation of CSM University, Joshi congratulated the graduating students. After the oath ceremony by the vice-chancellor as many as 261 PhD degrees were awarded. The highest were in arts (154), followed by science (45), education training (21), commerce (15), agriculture (8), life sciences (12), medical science (3) and engineering (3). The university also awarded D.Lit to Om Prakash Singh (Hindi literature), Sheel Nigam (Sanskrit) and V Balu (commerce).

Mohammed Khalid (BSc agriculture) from Etawah got the Chancellor's gold medal for being the best student of the university. He was also awarded chancellor's bronze medal and vice-chancellor's gold medal in agriculture. Poonam Verma won the Chancellor's silver medal for the best student of all faculties in post-graduate classes. The silver medal for the best girl student was given to Supriya Kesarwani, a management student.

VL Chopra, ex-member, Planning Commission was the chief guest. "In India, about 79 per cent of around 350 million labour force is non-permanent. This reflects lack of choice and skills, a situation which needs to be remedied. It raises a question as to what should our education system do to meet the situation," he said. Chopra laid stress on developing leadership qualities. "In order to bring reforms in higher education, new institution should be opened in rural areas for the benefit of rural population. A link must be established between course and placement market along with the updates in teaching, research, administration, management, planning and monitoring," said Chopra.

Vice-chancellor HK Sehgal highlighted the activities and achievements of the university. He said that the university has provided protected web page to each student which contains biometric and academic information. BSc in hospitality and hotel administration, diploma in food beverages services and BSc in medical microbiology have been introduced.