BENGALURU: Here’s some good news for students studying various courses at Bangalore University (BU). From this year on, the university will hand out gold medals to students, as opposed to the cash prizes that were being awarded earlier.
For years, the university was giving gold medals to students that were instituted by donors. However, now, the interest received on the corpus given by donors to the university is not sufficient to buy gold medals.
This decision was taken in the recent meeting of the expert committee constituted to finalise issues pertaining to gold medals.
Prof KR Venugopal, Vice-Chancellor (V-C) BU, said, “We need to consider the interest of students. I have seen the disappointment on their faces when they get cash prizes in place of gold medals. Winning these medals mean a lot to students.
“Giving gold medals to all performers comes at a cost of Rs 47 lakh to the university, and the tender for the same will be called soon. We are collecting examination and convocation fees from students, and also need to accommodate gold medals in the same budget,” said Venugopal.
As per BU officials, each medal will be coated with 1.5gm of gold. Earlier, BU was handing out 112 gold medals to toppers in various post-graduate courses, as well as to PhD scholars.This decision has been welcomed by students. “This is great news. Last year, my sister bagged a gold medal, but during the convocation, they gave her a cash award, and she was disappointed,” said a student.“When we search for jobs or attend interviews, having received gold medals increases our credibility. With cash awards, there are chances of us missing out on opportunities. This is a student-friendly move,” said another student.
Seeking corporate help
To overcome their financial burden, BU has decided to approach big corporates in the city. “For the next two years, we only have to organise convocation events for Bengaluru North and Bengaluru Central universities. So after two years, we will take the help of corporates, and request them to donate gold medals to encourage students,” said Venugopal.