More gold to glitter at Bangalore University this year

After six years, gold will finally begin to glitter at the Bangalore University’s 46th annual convocation, which will be held on February15.

The last time there were any gold medalists from the varsity was in its 39th convocation in 2004. After that, because of the skyrocketing price of gold, the university decreased the number of gold medals. Instead, cash awards were given to the achievers.

However, this time, Bangalore University decided to go for gold medals. “We don’t want students to be disappointed. So we have cancelled all the dinners, including the post-convocation dinner, and spent that money on gold medals,” said vice-chancellor Dr N Prabhu Dev.

In the 46th convocation, about 208 students are eligible for gold medals. “These gold medals are constituted by the university and are not related to the endowment fund. The interest received by the endowment fund will be separately given to the students in the form of cheques,” clarified Dev.

Nearly Rs18 lakh used to be spent on dinners. From now on, that money will be used for gold medals. “Along with that, we have got Rs5 lakh from general funds,” he said.

Each gold medal will weigh more than 5gm and the name of a student will be engraved on the medal, along with the signature of the vice-chancellor. “We also constituted a committee to examine the quality of gold,” Dev said.

Recently, at a syndicate meeting, the university decided not to entertain endowment funds below Rs5 lakh.