THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Mahatma Gandhi University has bagged the fourth Chancellor’s award for 2017-18, which carries a purse of Rs 5 crore. The Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Wayanad, (KVASU) has been chosen for the Chancellor’s award for the Best Emerging Young University for 2017-18, an award with a cash prize of Rs 1 crore.
Governor P Sathasivam accepted the recommendations of the selection committee constituted by the Kerala State Higher Education Council in this regard. Rajan Gurukkal P M, vice-chairman of the Kerala State Higher Education Council, submitted the recommendations to the Chancellor on Saturday.
It’s the second time both the universities have been chosen for the awards. MG University won the Chancellor’s Award for 2015-16 while the KVASU bagged the award for the emerging young varsity for 2016-17.
The nine-member selection committee constituted by the State Higher Education Council was chaired by Prof CNR Rao, National Research Professor and Honorary President, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru. The committee had Prof Ranganath H Annegowda, former Vice-Chancellor, Director National Assessment, Accreditation Council (NAAC), Suresh Das, Executive Director, Kerala State Council of Science, Technology and Environment, Thiruvananthapuram, Debashis Chatterjee, Director, Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode, Prof Prabhath Patnaik, Professor Emeritus, Centre for Economic Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, Prof JAK Tareen, former Vice-Chancellor, Central University, Pondicherry, Rajan Gurukkal, Usha Titus, Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, as members and Rajan Varughese, member secretary, Kerala State Higher Education Council as convener.
The selection was based on the criteria fixed earlier for both the awards. The period of assessment was from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. Ten universities had competed for the awards.