Bengaluru: The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) is set to organize its 20th convocation on Thursday.

RGUHS Vice-Chancellor M.K. Ramesh said on Tuesday that 26,469 candidates will receive degrees and prizes at the convocation. Among these, 6,111 will get degree under faculty of medicine, 3,095 under dentistry, 1,278 under Ayurveda, Unani, Naturopathy, and Yogic sciences, 177 under Homoeopathy, 2,931 under pharmacy and 11,423 under nursing. This year, 68 candidates will be awarded doctorate. For the first time, candidates who have excelled in Ayurveda courses have been considered for gold medals. Three will receive the medal this year. Consideration has been given only to those from colleges having 25 students and courses offered in at least five affiliated colleges.

The university has taken a decision to constitute gold medals for subjects in postgraduate courses where there are no prizes or medals constituted by donors. “Twenty-five gold medals have been added by the university,” said Ramesh.

Each gold medal weighs 5 gm and is of 22-carrat gold. RGUHS has set aside Rs. 5 crore for the gold medals. The total amount spent for the gold medals is Rs. 16 lakh.