Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Toppers of BA, B.Com and B.SC will receive medals during the convocation of Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAVV) on March 23, while their counterparts in the BBA and BCA disciplines will sit at the venue cursing their fate. Not only BBA and BCA, but many toppers of other courses will also not be getting any medal at the convocation.
Students of DAVV and affiliated colleges are on two different sides of a divide which exists in DAVV. While the topper of one course gets medals, the topper of the other course is not even considered for a certificate of appreciation.
The disparity is attributed to sponsorship. Deputy registrar (administration) Prajwal Khare said that medals are sponsored. “DAVV doesn’t give away medals on its own. People sponsor the medals in the memory of some persons. They submit a fixed amount and, from interest on it, the medals are prepared and given away to toppers of a subject in which the applicant wanted the medal to be instituted,” Khare said.
DAVV charges Rs 1.5 lakh for institution of a gold medal and Rs 1 lakh for a silver medal. For some subjects, there is more than one medal, while, in some other subjects, there is no medal at all. Citing a lack of sponsorships, DAVV does not even honour toppers of the other subjects.
“Toppers of subjects in which medals are not instituted aren’t even considered for a certificate of appreciation. This disparity is stark and unjustified. The university should end this kind of inequality,” said senior academic Ramesh Mangal.
DAVV is going to give away 185 gold and 22 silver medals at the convocation. Most of the medals are instituted in the engineering programmes, followed by such traditional courses as MA, M.Com, M.Sc, BA, B.Sc and B.Com.
Earlier, the highest number of medals was for the medical courses. But, since medial courses have gone under Madhya Pradesh Medical Science University, DAVV had stopped awarding medals to toppers in the medical streams.
Can funds submitted to DAVV for medals in medal courses not be used for preparing medals in courses where there is no sponsorship? “The rules don’t permit that. Plus, that’ll be misuse of funds,” Khare said.
