CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Higher Education Minister, Govi Chezhiyan, skipped the 46th Anna University convocation held in the city on Wednesday, in which Tamil Nadu Governor and Chancellor of the University, RN Ravi, participated and conferred degrees and medals on graduating students.

The minister boycotted the ceremony as a mark of protest against the Governor. As many as 753 research scholars were awarded doctoral degrees at the ceremony, while 68 undergraduate students who secured top ranks received degrees and medals.

In total, 1,50,495 candidates were conferred degrees, comprising 1,21,298 undergraduate students, 16,473 postgraduate students and 1,634 doctoral candidates.

He attributed this to a culture of confidence and perseverance inspired by the ideals articulated by poet Subramania Bharathi, particularly the call to overcome fear.

Highlighting the churn in the global employment landscape, Annadurai said that by 2030, nearly 170 million new jobs were projected to be created worldwide, even as around 90 million existing roles could become obsolete.

Emphasising the importance of continuous learning, he urged students to equip themselves for rapid technological shifts, especially in domains such as Artificial Intelligence, cautioning that the inability to adapt could limit future employment prospects.