Prez to address SMVDU convocation

President Ram Nath Kovind will address the convocation of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University here on April 18, the SMVDU spokesman said.

"Rashtrapati Bhavan has communicated to Raj Bhavan that Ram Nath Kovind, President of India, has accepted the Governor's request to be the Chief Guest and address the next convocation of the university on 18th April, 2018", he said.

The Governor N N Vohra had called on the President about a month earlier and requested him to address the next convocation of the university.

This is the sixth convocation of the SMVD university.

It was established in 1999 by Shri Mata Vahsino Devi Shrine Board, founded on the academic and residential pattern of IITs, and was inaugurated in 2004 by Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, then President of India, who also took the first class in this institution, he added.

The earlier convocations of the university have been addressed by Manmohan Singh, Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Infosys Chairman Narayan Murthy, Mohammad Hamid Ansari, and the last convocation, in 2016, was addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The varsity has about 1675 residential students who hail from 24 states of the country, the spokesman said.

It provides facilities for studies at the undergraduate, postgraduate and Ph.D levels in the fields of Engineering, Science, Management, Architecture, Humanities and Philosophy, he added.

In 2016 and 2017 the varsity was ranked among the top 150 universities of the country.Last year it was also selected for inclusion in the World Bank assisted Technical Education Quality Improvement Program which is administered by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, the spokesman said.