192 girls among 283 awarded PhD

Aarti Kapur

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 14

President Pranab Mukherjee lauded the girl students of Panjab University for receiving two-third of the PhD degrees at the university’s 64th annual convocation held at the Gymnasium Hall here today.

For the second consecutive year, 75 per cent of the toppers in PhD and other post-graduate courses of the university were girls.

As many as 682 students of the 2014 batch were awarded degrees and medals for topping in their respective departments. These included 283 students on whom degrees of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), MDand MS were bestowed upon.

Out of the total students awarded today, 514 were girls. Last year, as many as 721 students, including 502 girls, had received degrees and medals.

Out of 283 PhD scholars, including three foreign students, who received their degrees today, 192 were girls and 91 boys. In 2014, 244 students had received degrees and of these, 149 were girls.

Records of the university revealed that the highest number of PhD girl students (81) was from the science stream. The number of boys from the science stream awarded PhD was 28. In Business Management and Commerce, 13 girls were awarded PhD. No boy student from the department won the degree. In arts stream, 40 girls and 18 boys received degrees while in language departments, 26 girls and 12 boys were awarded degrees.

In contrast, the majority of PhD winners from pharma sciences were boys. Fourteen students got degree today and 11 of them were boys. Besides, four boys and three girl students from the Law Department were awarded degrees, and five boys and a girl student from the engineering and technology received their degrees.

Out of the total 283 PhD awardees, 109 were from Science department, 14 from Pharma Sciences, 58 from Arts, 30 from Education, 38 from Languages, seven from Law, six from Engineering and Technology, 13 from Business Management and Commerce and eight from Design and Fine Arts.

Degrees and medals were awarded to the top three students of MPhil, ME, LLM., MTech, MPharma, MBE, MBA, MCom, MFC, MSc (HS), MSc, MCA, MLib and Information Science, MEd, MPEd, MA, MA (HS), BSc (Prof), BPharma, BA(HS) Economics, BA LLB (Hons), BA (Hons) Education BEd, BPEd and BEd(Special Education in learning disabilities).

Three foreign nationals among PhD awardees

Among the 283 PhD awardees were three foreign nationals. Seven students from Iran, two from Iraq and one from Thailand received PhD degree. Other students who got the PhD came from 17 states.

Punjab leads in number of PhD awardees

The highest number of PhD awardees (111) was from the state of Punjab, followed by 50 from Chandigarh UT, 44 from Himachal Pradesh and 35 from Haryana.

Different Strokes

Maj-Gen Amarjeet Singh (retd)
Age: 58 years
Occupation: Retired from Army
Medal/award: One of the oldest candidates to receive a degree. On Saturday, the university bestowed on him a gold medal for the third time. This year, he topped in MPhil, Defence Studies. He graduated from the DAV College, Chandigarh. and won the gold medal for topping in BSc first and third years. He is frequently called by the department of defence studies to deliver lectures. He now eyes a doctorate in defence studies.

Gobida Gouri Yogandhar
Age: 40 years
Occupation: Wing Commander (Aeronautical engineering) posted at Guwahati in Assam
Medal/award: He received a medal for topping in MTech (Aeronautical engineering). Yogandhar said he was posted in Chandigarh in 2009 and planned to go for the course to enhance his knowledge in the field. He joined the Air Force in 1995.

Sakon Srisawang
Age: 43 years
Occupation: Teacher (from Thailand)
Medal/award: Awarded PhD in the faculty of education department. He was inspired by the head of his department in Thailand, who also did research in the same department from the PU. His mentor advised him to do PhD from India.

Shiv Kumar
Age: 57 years
Occupation: Deputy librarian, Panjab University Regional Centre, Hoshiarpur
Medal/award: He received PhD degree from the library department for research in inter-disciplinary Sanskrit language and library. By doing research, Shiv Kumar wanted to update his knowledge in the field.                                                 

Maryam Hassani Golyakh
Age: 30 years
Occupation: Student
Medal/award: Hailing from Iran, she did her PhD in the faculty of education department and chose India for education as English medium course is available here. She intends to obtain post-doctorate from the Delhi University.

Pathak Sudhir Somnath and Patil Namdeo Laxman
Age: 52 years and 50 years, respectively
Occupation: Businessmen in Maharashtra
Medal/award: Both were awarded PhD degrees. They came to Chandigarh especially for the purpose of doing PhD as they found prospects for research work in the city.

Brijmohan Lall Munjal,
Founder and chairman of Hero Group.
 

Honoured with
Udyog Rattan

Due to health reasons, Munjal could not attend the convocation. PU Vice-Chancellor Arun Kumar Grover said he would go to New Delhi to personally bestow the honour on the business magnate.