The country’s largest and oldest varsity, Tribhuvan University, is set to organise its 46th convocation ceremony with only 83 graduates on December 21.

The decision to downsize the number of participants came due to fear of coronavirus.

With this decision, 7,057 graduates who had filled the form and paid the due amount to participate in the convocation will be deprived of the opportunity.

Each student had paid up to Rs 4,000 to participate in the convocation. Students had also paid additional fee to call their parents to the ceremony. Over 5,000 guardians of the graduates were supposed to participate.

A total of 56,713 students had attained their academic degree in bachelors, masters, Mphil and PhD levels from over 60 constituent and 1,000 affiliated colleges of the varsity this year.

Even the number of PhD and Mphil students have been downsized from the total of 317 to 83 for participation in the programme. A total of 137 persons had received PhD degree this year, of whom only 41 are set to participate in the convocation.

Similarly, only 25 Mphil graduates, out of 180, will be participating in the function.

Likewise, 17 gold medalists of various streams in bachelors and masters degree will attend the function.

A total of 21 gold medals will be distributed at the function.

The varsity, which had planned to telecast the ceremony live from the stateowned Nepal Television, has urged all those left out to participate in the function next year.

Pushpa Raj Joshi, controller at the Office of the Controller of the Examinations, TU, said, “I hope students will understand that the rule was brought in a bid to collectively fight the ongoing pandemic. Students who have been left out this year can participate in the function next year.”

The university has said that those who have paid their money would get refund after they returned their gowns and other props to the university. Some of the graduates who filled the form to participate in the function, however, expressed sadness at the decision.

Sanjeeta Acharya, a graduate from Nepal Commerce Campus, Minbhawan, said, “I had the dream of attending the convocation with my parents. But, the dream is unlikely to be fulfilled anytime soon, as I will not be in the country next year.”

source: the himalayan times, 14 december 2020