‘Anti-National’ JNU Wins Visitor’s Award for ‘Best University’

The university has won the award for its “unrelenting pursuit of academic excellence”, President Mukherjee said.

Students agitating during one of the students protests at JNU in March. (Photo: PTI)

Jawaharlal Nehru University, which was at the heart of major protests and controversy last February, has won an award for being the ‘best university’.

The university has won the award for its “unrelenting pursuit of academic excellence”, President Pranab Mukherjee on Monday said while conferring the honour.

Scientists from the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Banaras Hindu University and Tezpur University were also given awards in the innovation and research categories.

The President said JNU has shown “outstanding” performance in all key parameters like quality of students and faculty, training of faculty, citations, publications, research projects, foreign collaborations, seminars and innovation exhibitions. “I urge upon the university to continue the good work,” he said.

The President said the honours conferred lend due credence to awardees' single-minded devotion and painstaking work in the pursuit of excellence.

“The recognition should, on the one hand, inspire them to higher levels of performance, and on the other, spur researchers and scientists in the central university system to explore wider domains of human understanding,” he said.

President Pranab Mukherjee had earlierannounced on his official Twitter page that the University will be given the award.