Satavahana University, that has completed a decade of its existence, has earned the distinction of being the only university in that State to not have conducted convocation since its inception.
Both PG and undergraduate students graduating from the university have not collected their convocation certificate in the absence of graduation ceremony. Non-availability of permanent Vice-Chancellor since the last three years has been cited as a reason for not conducting the convocation.
Though the first Vice-Chancellor, Md Iqbal Ali, and his successor K. Veera Reddy made efforts to conduct the convocation, they could not succeed in doing so. Later, GHMC Commissioner B. Janardhan Reddy was posted as In-charge V-C from 2015 to 2017, while HMDA Commissioner T. Chiranjeevulu is the current In-charge V-C. Mr. Janardhan Reddy was busy with his respective department and was unable to focus on university administration and a similar situation faces Mr. Chiranjeevulu now.
The university offers 17 PG courses in MA, M.Com, M.Sc, MBA, MSW, M.Sc Food Science and other degree courses, and several philanthropists have instituted gold medals for various subjects in all the PG courses, but they have remained undistributed to students in the absence of convocation ceremony.
However, university officials said though they did not conduct the graduation ceremony, they handed over convocation certificate to students by collecting ₹1,000 each from them. But they conceded that they did not give away gold medals to students. “We are making all efforts to conduct the graduation ceremony this year by inviting Telangana and Andhra Pradesh Governor E.S.L. Narasimhan,” the officials added.
When asked about the same, students said, “Receiving the convocation certificate at a ceremony is a lifetime experience. It will instil confidence in us. But it’s unfortunate that we are deprived of it here and Satavahana University is the only one in the State to not conduct the convocation.”