Some predate independence; hundreds also returned after convocation since 2005 These days Panjab University (PU) is grappling with an unusual problem,for which it is hard-pressed to find a solution. With an increase in the number of enrollments each year,the degree bank that houses unclaimed and undelivered degrees has also reached a record number of around 20,000 degrees that are still waiting to be handed over to the candidates. The unclaimed degrees at the University Certificate Branch has been adding up since the time of partition,with a few degrees even older than 1947. This number of 20,000 is in addition to hundreds of degrees returned to each department of the University,since 2005,after the annual convocation is over. To unload the increasing burden of the Certificate Branch,the university involved each department in maintaining these documents. As in the last six years,undelivered or unclaimed degrees are returned to the respective department of the candidate, said the Controller of Examinations Prof A K Bhandari. Apart from degrees of its own candidates,till 1968 degrees of candidates of various affiliated colleges,private and other candidates were also handed over by the Panjab University alone. Later,each college started holding its separate convocation function to hand over degrees to its students as the University opted to transfer these documents to the respective institute,each year. Last week,the branch received an application claiming the degree of Kulwant Singh,a University candidate,now residing in Ludhiana. He had completed his BSc Agriculture in 1966. The application was put forward by one of his family members. With the kind of book-keeping and maintenance of data,it hardly took a day to find the degree, revealed one of the senior officials of the Certificate Branch. The reasons for piling up of degrees cited by the officials vary from candidates,of whom majority are female,getting married and settled in some other state or abroad. Due to the gap of one year in getting a degree after one has completed the course which was even more earlier,candidates fail to turn up for their degrees. Those who have already settled professionally also rarely bother to claim their degrees. The staff of this branch claimed that the number of undelivered degrees and other related documents has been on a rise,each year. We have stored very old degrees and gazettes in different sections known as pigeon racks marked with corresponding year. Different registers are maintained for each convocation indicating which candidate had taken the degree and who had not, added the official. Concerned over the increasing number of unclaimed degrees,the University in 2005 introduced the concept of returning all the undelivered degrees to the concerned departments. While,another facility that was introduced in the same year was delivering the degrees of top three candidates who fail to turn up for the convocation to their residence by post. Degree mela With a record number of 20,000 degrees,the university authorities are contemplating whether to organise another degree mela for these unclaimed degrees. A similar kind of event was organised in 2005-06 where unclaimed degrees were handed over to candidates. Not many takers turned up for the earlier mela,where around 100 degrees were given to the claimants without charging any fee. This time the authorities want to advertise the event on a better and larger scale in the hope of receiving a better response.
