Thiruvananthapuram: Governor P. Sathasivam accepted the recommendation of Selection Committee constituted by the Kerala State Higher Education Council to confer the fourth Chancellor’s Award for the academic year- 2017-18 on Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam.
The prestigious award carries a Rs 5 crore prize money.The Governor also accepted the committee’s recommendation to confer the Chancellor’s Award for the Best Emerging Young University for 2017-18 on Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Wayanad.
Rajan Gurukkal, vice chairman, Kerala State Higher Education Council submitted the recommendation to the Chancellor on Saturday at Kerala Raj Bhavan.
This is the second time that both universities are receiving the respective awards. Mahatma Gandhi University had won the Chancellor’s Award for 2015-16 and the Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University had received the award for the best Emerging Young varsity for 2016- 17.
The nine-member Selection Committee constituted by the Kerala State Higher Education Council was chaired by C.N.R. Rao, National Research Professor and honorary president, Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bangalore. The committee had Ranganath H. Annegowda, former vice-chancellor and director National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Suresh Das, executive director, Kerala State Council of Science, Technology and Environ-ment, Thiruvananthap-uram, Debashis Chatterjee, director, Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode, Prabhath Patnaik, professor emeritus, Centre for Econ-omic Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, J.A.K. Tareen, former vice-chancellor, Central University, Pondicherry, Rajan Gurukkal P.M., vice- chairman, Kerala State Higher Education Council and Usha Titus, principal secretary, Higher Education Department as members and Rajan Varughese, member secretary, Kerala State Higher Education Council as the convener.
The selection was based on the criteria fixed earlier for both the awards. The period of assessment was from July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018. Ten Universities competed for Awards. Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies and Thunchath Ezhuthachan Malayalam University were considered for the Emerging Young university category.
Kerala University of Health Sciences, APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University and Kerala Kalamandalam Deemed University did not participate.
