KATHMANDU: Tribhuvan University (TU) has decided to discontinue the tradition of awarding the ‘Chancellor Medal’ starting this year. This medal, conventionally presented at the TU convocation day, will no longer be distributed due to challenges in identifying the top-performing students under the semester system.

Pushpa Raj Joshi, Examination Controller at the Office of Controller of Examinations, TU, explained that the discontinuation resulted from the difficulty in identifying the highest-scoring students within the semester grading framework.

“We used to award the medal to the student with the highest marks across nine master’s level subjects. However, with the shift to semester-based grading, distinguishing the best-performing student has become challenging,” Joshi stated.

He further clarified that the selection process for the medal relied on identifying the student with the highest percentage of marks across nine subjects. However, with the current evaluation method based on semester grading, pinpointing the top student has become intricate.

The Chancellor Medal was previously awarded to a student excelling in all nine subjects at the postgraduate level and included a three-tola gold medal (11.66 grams per tola) and a certificate.

TU’s 49th convocation ceremony is scheduled for December 18 at Dasharath Stadium. Dr. Peshal Dahal, Registrar of TU, highlighted the difficulty in singling out outstanding students for the medal due to the implementation of the grading system across postgraduate subjects.

“With the introduction of the grading system across all master’s level subjects, it has become challenging to identify the top students, which was previously feasible based on annual test scores,” Dr. Dahal remarked.

Dr. Dahal further mentioned that the grading system, a global practice, is gradually being integrated into Nepal’s educational system, extending to bachelor’s level programs.