Governor Arif Mohammed Khan here on Thursday conferred honorary DLitt (Doctor of Letters) degrees on renowned literary critic M.K. Sanoo and linguist Scaria Zacharia. Yves Grohens and Didier Rouxel, researchers and scientists in the field of Polymer Science, too were accorded the honorary Doctor of Science (DSc) degree.
Higher Education Minister and Pro-Chancellor of MGU R. Bindu, Vice Chancellor Sabu Thomas, Cooperation Minister V.N. Vasavan and others were present.
Speaking on the occasion, the Governor said the aim of education should be to make people look at their fellow beings with compassion and accept, celebrate and respect differences. The Indian thinkers taught that the reality was not a single point of view, but a perspective from many directions.
Ms. Bindu said plans were afoot to allot new courses on a project mode to universities, including the MGU. The State government, according to her, was duty-bound to implement the recommendations of the three committees appointed for reforming the State’s higher education sector after due verification.
The government will accept all criticisms about the education system in Kerala with an open mind, she added.
During the function, the MGU Vice Chancellor received the award on behalf of Mr. Zacharia who could not attend the function due to health reasons. The V-C later visited Mr. Zacharia at his residence at Changanassery and handed over the certificate.
According to the university, Mr. Sanoo was selected for the DLitt degree based on his immense contributions towards the Malayalam language, while the award for Mr. Zacharia was in recognition of his efforts in recovering the archival knowledge and Malayalam manuscripts from the University of Tubingen in Germany.
Didier Rouxel is a Professor at the Institut Jean Lamour, Université de Lorraine, France, while Prof. Yves Grohens is the Director of the LIMATB (Material Engineering) Laboratory of Université de Bretagne Sud, France.