Patna: Patna University will award degrees to 1,305 students who cleared postgraduate examinations in the 2025-26 academic session at its annual convocation to be held at Patna Women’s College on Saturday, with women students forming a significant share of recipients.Of the 38 university toppers who will receive gold medals in different subjects, 29 are women. The convocation will be presided over by governor-cum-chancellor Syed Ata Hasnain. Punam Tandon, vice-chancellor of Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gorakhpur University, will deliver the convocation address.University records show a sharp contrast with PU’s first convocation on Nov 30, 1918, in the Council Chamber of Govt House, now Lok Bhavan. At that ceremony, only five candidates received Master’s degrees and the rest received bachelor’s degrees, while no woman received a degree and none was among the invited guests.“The transformation is remarkable and beautifully reflects the progress made in women’s education in Bihar over the last century,” said former dean of PU’s faculty of ocial Sciences N K Chaudhary.The 1918 convocation was presided over by Sir Edward Albert Gait, then governor of Bihar and chancellor of the university. Vice-chancellor J G Jennings welcomed attendees including Chief Justice Sir T F Dawson Miller, Bishop Foss Westcott, eminent educationists and senior government officials.After PU acquired the Wheeler Senate House in 1926, convocations were held there for several years, before rising student numbers led the university to shift ceremonies to college campuses and larger venues such as S K Memorial Hall and Bapu Sabhagar.With graduates now numbering in the thousands, undergraduate students are no longer awarded degrees at the convocation.—
