Varanasi: Banaras Hindu University held its first academic excellence award ceremony on Friday, honouring 332 students who secured the top positions in their programmes in the even semester examinations with a CGPA of 8.5 or above.Introduced from the 2025–26 academic session, the awards aim to recognise academic excellence across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in all disciplines. Nearly 500 students are expected to receive the honour each year. Of the 332 awardees, 173 were undergraduate students and 159 were postgraduate students from various institutes and faculties of the university.The faculty of arts recorded the highest number of awardees at 92, followed by the faculty of science with 78 and the faculty of agriculture with 30. The number of awards for each programme is based on student strength. Programmes with more than 100 students receive three awards, those with 50 to 100 students receive two, and those with fewer than 50 students receive one.Presiding over the ceremony, Vice-Chancellor Prof Ajit Kumar Chaturvedi said the initiative was launched to place academic achievement at the centre of the University’s calendar.The ceremony at Swatantra Bhavan drew a full-capacity gathering of students, faculty members, deans, directors, University officials, and award recipients.
