KARACHI, Oct 14: The University of Karachi has planned to award 63 gold medals to the meritorious graduates of 2001 examinations at its 17th convocation scheduled to be held on Nov 4.

The number of gold medals have been raised through income from various endowments sponsored by outside agencies, including philanthropists, industries and other organizations. However, the number of gold medals is not enough to meet the requirements of over 90 top position holders of honours and master’s class examinations.

The University is unable to award every top position holder a gold medal as it lacks funds. At the last convocation held on Nov 3, about 350 graduates were awarded degrees, while 55 of them were given gold medals.

A high-level meeting with Vice-Chancellor Dr Zafar Saied Saify in the chair on Monday discussed the preparations for the convocation and it was noted that 160 graduates had applied for receiving their degrees, while about 23 had applied for award of gold medals in person.

The meeting decided to extend the last date for receiving applications up to Oct 19. It also decided that only those graduates who had already received PhD or MPhil degrees would be allowed to participate in the convocation as a special case.

It was resolved that those graduates who had already applied for university degree could participate in the convocation by attaching the acknowledgement of their applications along with the convocation registration forms.