Colleges affiliated to Bharathidasan University are in the process of re-scheduling dates for conduct of Graduation Day, which had not been held for two consecutive years.
After conduct of the 37th Convocation Ceremony by Bharathidasan University last December, some of the affiliated colleges had fixed their graduation day functions during January, 2021.
However, the lockdown restrictions that were imposed due to the scare of spread of omicron variant of COVID-19 virus had caused the cancellation of the functions.
"We are under compulsion to grant the degree certificates to UG ad PG students of the 2019-20 pass-out batch. Even for students of 2020-21 batch, a degree certificate being a necessity for admission into foreign universities, many feel stranded," a principal of an affiliated college in the city said.
Even within India, a number of higher educational institutions hesitate to accept provisional mark statement for the purpose of making admissions, another principal pointed out.
"Hopefully, the academic activities in offline mode will be activated after completion of the online exam. Thankfully, the third wave of the COVID pandemic was not severe," he reasoned out.
“For students as well as parents in rural parts, receiving the degree certificate with the robes on is the logical conclusion of their graduation programme. An end to the wait could well be in sight,” he said, exuding hope that the month of March could witness several Graduation Day ceremonies, provided there is no fresh threat of COVID spread.
But, engineering colleges affiliated to Anna University will have to wait even to plan for Graduation Day programmes until the university holds the Convocation ceremony.
"In any case, rank holders and gold medalists will be receiving their degrees during the Convocation Ceremony of the university. If the emphasis on social distancing continues, the Graduation Day programmes will be held in a low-key scale, to honour the meritorious achievers, in a blended mode, at the earliest. The degrees would be distributed to the students through the college offices later on, a principal of an engineering college said.
