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As many as 4694 were awarded degrees and diplomas at the Annual Convocation of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) recently where Union Minister for Science and Technology, Dr. Harsh Vardhan exhorted the awardees to come up with “out-of-box” ideas for nation-building and inculcate and practice the power of truth, honesty, love and compassion and karma.
While 4372 candidates belonging to various faculties were awarded with degrees and diplomas, a total of 322 received PhD degrees.
Chancellor of JMI, Dr Najma A Heptulla, Vice-Chancellor, Talat Ahmad, Pro Vice-Chancellor, Shahid Ashraf and Registrar, A P Siddiqui (IPS), Deans of faculties and students alsoattented the convocation.
Dr Vardhan, who was the Chief Guest at the Annual Convocation 2017, presented 165 gold medals to toppers, mostly women, of various courses.
Master of Law (LLM) topper, Sumaira Imtiaz was presented with Dr. Ghulam EVahanvati gold medal and cash prize of Rs 50,000/- instituted by the family of the former Attorney General of India.
Congratulating the degree holders, Dr Vardhan asked them to generate out-of-box ideas to achieve Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of building New India by 2022.
He said the government will provide all support including funding of those ideas that have the potential of nation-building.
He also asked them to make truth, honesty, love, compassion and karma as their fundamental philosophy of life.
He spoke highly of the academic performance of JMI as reflected in its national and international ranking.
He said that he was pleased to know that the university has cutting edge and state-of-the-art laboratories and research facilities and made a special mention of JMI’s Nanotechnology and Nanosciences Centre.
JMI Chancellor and Governor of Manipur, Dr Heptulla reminded the students of the university’s illustrious history tied to the freedom struggle which places tremendous onus on the present generation to live up to it.
She said that she was happy to note that JMI was fulfilling its social mandate by making higher education accessible to school drop-outs and Madarsa background children to bring them in the mainstream.
She also emphasised the importance of educating girls especially in the Science and Technology stream.
Giving an overview of the university’s performance in the last one year and its future plan, Vice Chancellor, Prof Talat Ahmad said that the university was already offering 254 courses and from this academic year nine more courses have been introduced in areas like MSc in Disaster Management and Climate Sustainability Studies and PG Diploma in Labour Law, Diploma in Korean Language and Certificate in Ticketing & Air Fare Construction.
About JMI’s future plans, he said “we have to ensure that we not only maintain ‘Á’ grade given to the university by National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in 2015 but also have to work strategically on improving it. We also hope to get the University with Potential for Excellence in the coming years.”
Among those present at the function were of Heads of Missions of various countries, former Vice Chancellor Prof Shahid Mahdi, family members of late G E Vahanvati, former Attorney General, Heads of Departments, Directors of Centres, faculty members, staff and students.
