18 among the 8,615 students of undergraduate, postgraduate and doctorate programmes to be conferred degrees won gold medals during the 7th convocation of Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU) held in Patna on Tuesday.

The gold medallists included Kumari Surbhi (civil engineering), Versha Singh (BBA), Dheeraj Kumar (BCA), Raj Ratan (BCom professional), Gaurav Raj (BBE), Kajal Kumari (BMC), Md Zishan (MTech), Sujata (MEd), Gopal Kumar (BEd), Ayman Taslima and Mamta Kumari (Medicine and Surgery), Amit Kumar (Anaesthesiology), Shams Taurej (general surgery), Kumar Vaibhav Sharma (general surgery), Shreeja Singh (diploma in gynaecology and obstetrics), Palak Jyoti and Anand Ranjan (Basic BSc in nursing) and Ankita Prabhakar (Post basic in BSc nursing).

AKU’s vice-chancellor Surendra Pratap Singh presented gold medals to the 17 students who attended the ceremony at the varsity premises while degrees were awarded virtually.

Bihar’s governor cum university chancellor Phagu Chauhan extended his best wishes to the passing students.

Education minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary lauded the meritorious students and urged them to contribute to the betterment of the society.

As per AKU officials, 9,152 students were admitted in various courses including medical, engineering, vocational, nursing, education in 2016-20 and 2017-20 sessions. Of them, 7,904 students were awarded degrees along with 16 PhD scholars and 695 students of previous batches.

Bihar health minister Mangal Pandey and science and technology minister Sumit Kumar Singh attended the ceremony virtually.