RUGHS 21st Convocation to be held on March 26 - Medicos to the get Actual GOLD Medals

Bangalore: Exceeding the number of gold medalist in the previous year, students of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RUGHS) is all set to commemorate another moment of kudos. RGUHS will be holding its 21^st Annual Convocation Ceremony on March 26^th in Bengaluru wherein the toppers in each subject in both Under Graduate (UG) and Post Graduate (PG) medical courses will be presented gold medals. Over 147 students will be conferred with the same.

A recent notification in this regard has been uploaded on the official website of RUGHS. The notice apprises about the venue for the ceremony as NIMHANS Convocation Centre Housr Road, Bangalore. Though the ceremony would commence at 11 am, the candidates are requested to be present at the venue by 8:30 am itself.

On the occasion, Governor and Chancellor Vajubai Vala will hand over convocation certificates to the students, and Prof CNR Rao will deliver the convocation address.

Reaching a milestone, the university has recorded the highest pass percentage in the past five years. The overall pass percentage of all faculties put together stands at 81.11%, which was 70.44% in the previous academic year. This year, over 37,670 candidates appeared for various undergraduate, postgraduate and other paraclinical courses, of who 30,556 candidates cleared the exams.

Altogether, a total of 30556 candidates will be awarded degrees and prizes with 5711 in PG courses and 24481 in UG Courses. Besides, there are 175 fellowships, 16 in certificate courses, 129 in super speciality courses and 44 in doctoral studies.

Also Read: RGUHS student gets 10 Gold Medals

RUGHS has shelled out over 16 lakh for the pure gold medals this year and each medal weighs nearly 4.8 grams costing around Rs 16,000 per medal. A total of 136 gold medals will be awarded to candidates during the convocation. Of the total 136 gold medals, 86 were bagged by girl students and 22 by boys. These medals have been shared by total of 108 students, reports The New Indian Express.

At a media conference on Thursday, Vice-chancellor S. Sachidananda said that the university decided to partly fund some of the gold medals that were instituted by donors. "Earlier, if the money given by the donors was not sufficient to award a gold medal, we would give a cash award. But now, the university has decided to bear the remaining amount and give gold medals to students," he said.

Dr Vallish Shenoy, a UG student of the AJ Institute of Medical Science, Mangaluru, has bagged 7 gold medals and a cash prize.

"I am looking forward to pursuing Neurology from National Institute of Mental Health and Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bengaluru. I never thought of taking MBBS. It was only seeing my sister growing up in the same field I was interested," Shenoy told Bangalore Mirror.

He also wants to own a pharmaceutical company which will help the unfortunate with free health care.

Fighting kidney stones and securing two gold medals, Dr Supriya from Government Homeopathic Medical College told the daily, "Just one week before my exams I was diagnosed with a kidney stone. I had severe pain. When I spoke about this to my parents they asked me not to appear for the exams, but I refused."

She added, "Determination is the key to success. I am also a sports person and played badminton now and then. I also play the violin as my hobby. In future, I want to set up my own clinic as I am from a small town in Gulbarga and want to treat patients there. I came to Bengaluru only to do my course."

Dr Aparna, another UG student of D A Pandu Memorial RV Dental College, Bengaluru, and Dr Bathsa Liza Johnson, PG student (Pharm D) of Bharathi College of Pharmacy, Mandya, has secured six gold medals each.

Speaking to the Bangalore Mirror, Aparna told, "I am planning to complete my post-graduation after which I want to spread oral health awareness in rural India. I am from Chennai and I came here to pursue medicine."

More female students have secured distinction and first class compared to their male counterparts. The gold medals and cash prizes will be shared by 108 students, of which 86 are women. Fifty of the students who have won gold medals are from colleges in Bengaluru. According to The Hindu, the university will award scholarships, a cash prize of Rs15,000, to meritorious students from lower economic backgrounds.

Speaking about the number of rank holders and gold medal winners from private medical colleges and government medical colleges, Dr Sachidanand, vice-chancellor, RGUHS, told, "University does not differ between private and government. The only reason for less number of students from government colleges is because the number of colleges. Compared to private colleges, the government-run medical colleges are less and even the performance of them is remarkable."

The varsity will also be conferring 'Doctor of Science' to Dr KS Nagesh, the well known dental surgeon in the state. He was the former principal of RV Dental College, Bengaluru.

The Medical Education Department, which collated the total number of postgraduate degree and diploma seats in medicine, pointed out that the number of seats had increased by 70 for the 2019-2020 academic year. This year, the total number of seats in government and private colleges stands at 2,345 while last year, the total number of seats was 2,275. Many PG diploma seats have been converted to PG degree seats.