PRAYAGRAJ, July 16 -- Ramya Singh, a BSc student of Dev Indravati Mahavidyalaya in Ambedkar Nagar, will receive the Chancellor's Gold Medal at the 21st convocation of Uttar Pradesh Rajarshi Tandon Open University (UPRTOU) on Friday. She will receive four gold medals after securing first division and emerging as the highest scorer among all undergraduate and postgraduate students of the university. The convocation will begin at 10 am at the Atal Auditorium on the university's Saraswati Campus. Governor and chancellor Anandiben Patel will preside over the ceremony. Padma Shri awardee and classical and folk singer Malini Awasthi will deliver the convocation address. Uttar Pradesh higher education minister Yogendra Upadhyay and minister of state for higher education Rajni Tiwari will attend as special guests. Addressing the media on Wednesday, vice-chancellor prof Satyakam said degrees would be awarded to 30,886 students who passed the December 2025 and June 2026 examinations. Of them, 17,788 are men and 13,098 are women. The degrees will also be available through DigiLocker. A total of 26 gold medals will be presented during the ceremony, including 20 to women and six to men. Among the postgraduate students receiving university gold medals are Shobhit Maurya (MA Journalism and Mass Communication) of Lal Bahadur Shastri PG College, Gonda; Shreya Yadav (MA Sociology) of BM Memorial Degree College, Ambedkar Nagar; Rhythm Pandey (MCom) from the university headquarters; Rahul Kumar Mishra (MCA); Kumari Deepika Rathore (MA Education) of GSA College of Education, Agra; Haya Matloob (MSc Biochemistry) of Ram Lagan Mahavidyalaya, Mau; and Tanya Tyagi (MSc Food and Nutrition) of Raghunath Girls' PG College, Meerut. In the undergraduate category, university gold medals will be awarded to Sarita Verma (BA) of Sardar Patel Smarak Mahavidyalaya, Ambedkar Nagar; Akriti Patel (BA) of Dr Parashuram Deenbandhu Mahavidyalaya, Ambedkar Nagar; Mariyam Khanam Shahid Khan (BCom) of Ram Lagan Mahavidyalaya, Mau; Jitendra Kumar Jaiswal (BEd Special Education) from the university campus; Ramya Singh (BSc) of Dev Indravati Mahavidyalaya, Ambedkar Nagar; and Kushagra Singh (BSc Human Nutrition) of DVS College, Agra. In addition, 12 meritorious students will receive donor-sponsored gold medals. During the ceremony, chancellor Anandiben Patel will also honour winners of speech, painting and storytelling competitions organised at Anganwadi centres adopted by the university. She will distribute kits to the centres. A mother-daughter conference will be held after the convocation, and outstanding teachers of the university will also be felicitated. Prof Satyakam also announced that the university has received approval to introduce four new courses: MA in Public Administration, MA in Mathematics, MSc in Zoology and MSc in Botany. He said a formal notification for admissions to these programmes would be issued shortly....