JNAFAU's 4th Convocation today

Hyderabad: Jawaharlal Nehru Architecture and Fine Arts University (JNAFAU)'s 4th Convocation will be held in the city at its premises in Masa tank on Thursday.

Disclosing this addressing a press conference in the city on Wednesday Prof Dr N Kavita Daryani Rao, Vice Chancellor said the convocation for three academic years 2019-20; 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 will be held on Thursday. Dr BS Murthy, Director, IIT Hyderabad will be the Chief Guest.

Dr Tamilisai Soundararajan, Governor of Telangana State and Lt Governor of Puducherry, Chancellor of the University will join live online and address the gathering.

During the Convocation, six PhDs, 114 Gold Medals and 612 for other Degrees will be conferred. 331 PG Degrees and 4456 Undergraduate Degrees, all put together 4793 degrees will be awarded.

Doctor of Philosophy, Honoris Causa, will be conferred to Architect Brinda Somaya, eminent and renowned Architect and Conservation Specialist. She is the recipient of UNESCO Asia-Pacific Heritage award for the restoration of the St. Thomas' Cathedral in Mumbai in 2004. She was chosen as one of the "100 GLOBAL PUBLIC INTEREST DESIGN" persons working at the intersection of design and service globally in the year 2013.

The Six doctoral theses for which the doctorates will be presented tomorrow are two in the faculty of Architecture and four in the faculty of Planning. These covered areas of academic and present-day significance range from Bus Transit System, Neighborhood Quality, Housing for the Urban Poor, Impact of Urbanization on Lakes and Residential spaces for the elderly. All doctoral scholars have published articles concerning their research work in national and international journals, shared Prof S. Kumar, Director of Evaluation, JNAFAU.

Of the overall 114 Gold Medals, 42 are University Gold Medals, 51 are longstanding Endowment Medals and 5 Endowment Medals were instituted at the last convocation. This year 16 Endowment Gold Medals have been added which were instituted by the Institute of Indian Interior Designers, (IIID), Gold Medals are being awarded for three academic years, Prof S. Kumar, added.

Total degrees to be conferred in this convocation upon candidates from the constituent, affiliated and MoU/VAD colleges including UG, PG and Ph.D are 4793, he said.

The University is in the process of realigning its academic programs as per the direction of National Education Policy 2020 shared Dr. N. Kavita Daryani Rao. To begin with, we are shortly introducing one-year programs in Interior Design and Photography for which there is a lot of interest. The University is trying to put the holistic development of students a priority. With this objective, it has introduced a system of mentoring with each student being allotted a faculty mentor. Senior Counsellor supports faculty mentors to help students, she added.