PM to address Vaishno Devi University convocation

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address the first convocation of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) on Friday, Vice chancellor Narender Kumar Bansal said today.

Jammu: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address the first convocation of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University (SMVDU) on Friday, Vice chancellor Narender Kumar Bansal said today. "The Prime Minister would confer degrees on 101 students in various fields including management and technology," he said.

Bansal hopes that the university will secure the status of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) or Indian Institute of Management (IIM). The university has achieved the standards of excellence though it is still in infancy, Bansal told reporters.

"The SMVDU has established itself as highly practical and achieved standards of excellence. I expect the Prime Minister to accord it the status of either IIM or IIT," he said.

Bansal was referring to the IITs and IIMs, autonomous engineering, technology-oriented and management institutes of higher education established and declared as institutes of national importance by India

Ahead of the convocation, Bansal spoke about the programmes and achievements of the university since 2004, when it was created. He said that the university started with only 54 students in August 2004 and now it has 850 students in schools of engineering, management, science and philosophy.

These students are from across the country and were admitted through competitive examinations. The vice chancellor said since a cancer hospital of the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine was coming up, they plan to open a medical college also by 2010. (IANS)

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