TIRUNELVELI: The 31st convocation ceremony of Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (MSU) will be conducted at VOC Auditorium on the university campus on Saturday, said MSU Vice-Chancellor N Chandrasekar. Addressing media persons on Thursday, he said the event will be presided over by Governor RN Ravi, who will confer degrees.
"N V Chalapathi Rao, Director of National Geophysical Research Institute, Thiruvananthapuram, will be the chief guest. A total of 571 students will receive their degrees from Ravi in person, while 111 gold medals (14 male, 97 female) and 460 doctoral degrees (83 male, 377 female) will be awarded.
Notably, the university will confer the highest number of PhDs among state universities to female research scholars this year, with 377 women receiving the doctoral degree. Overall, 33,821 students, including those attending virtually, will be conferred degrees at the ceremony. Minister for Higher Education Kovi Chezhiaan will also participate," Chandrasekar said.
SFI protest ABVP leader's appointment
Meanwhile, members of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), led by their state president T Sameer Ahamed and district secretary Sylas Arulraj, staged a protest in front of the MSU campus, opposing the appointment of ABVP state (TN South) president Savitha Rajesh as a syndicate member, under the academic expert category.
Condemning the appointment of Savitha, who works as an associate professor at a private college in Nagercoil, the SFI members accused the governor of attempting to saffronise educational institutions by pushing RSS ideology into academic spaces. Such moves are part of a larger agenda to influence the education system with right-wing ideologies, they said, and warned of intensifying protests if the appointment is not revoked immediately.
The Kongunadu Makkal Desiya Katchi (KMDK) also criticised Savitha's appointment, and alleged that several universities in Tamil Nadu have been functioning without vice-chancellors due to deliberate delays by Ravi, in case of appointments, thereby resulting in a decline in academic performance.