Oldest varsity yet to update its system

Bishnu Prasad Aryal
Kathmandu, April 11:

Tribhuvan University, the government-owned oldest university of the country, is yet to overhaul its older and traditional systems of curricula and exams as per the international standards, and interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary approaches. It has failed to include semester system and a four-year Bachelor’s Degree programme in many faculties and departments.

Recently established two state-owned universities--Purbanchal University and Pokhara University, and another private-run Kathmandu University have already adopted the updated exam systems and curricula, meeting the international values and standards.

“Though TU has well maintained its quality in Medicine and Engineering, it is yet to update systems in other faculties,” said Dhruba Prasad Niure, teacher at the Central Department of Education at TU. “Neither it has adopted a four-year Bachelor’s programme in many departments and faculties nor implemented semester system,” said Niure, who is doing MPhil in Curriculum from TU. “Students are compelled to sit in the exams once a year.”

According to the Curriculum Development Centre (CDC), TU, the semester system and four-year Bachelor programme have been applied only in the Faculties of Medicine, Engineering, Forestry and Agriculture, and Bachelor in Business Administration and Bachelor in Information Management.

“However, these systems are yet be put into practice in the Faculties of Science, Humanities, Education and Management,” said Dr Keshav Kumar Shrestha, executive director at CDC. “We don’t have any plan to reform and enforce these programmes immediately.”

About 300,000 students are annually enrolled in TU and its affiliated campuses across the nation. TU, established five decades ago, developed its own curriculum in 1974 and revised it three times. “We are modifying it now after 12 years of last amendment and implementing from this year,” said Shrestha. “If it is demanded, we can think upon modernising it.”

Sixteen-year education is mandatory to get admission in Master’s Degree in Europe and American universities. “Our degrees are not internationally recognised. Nepalese students must complete additional one-year course prior to get admission in European and American universities,” said Niure.

“There is a need of drastic change in our education system based on the outdated traditional courses,” said Ram Bahadur Bakhati, retired deputy administrator at Equivalent Section of CDC. “Fifty percent of the present system is unscientific and does not meet even national need,” he said. “It is the age of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary concepts in education system, adopting micro and macro practices with specialisation but TU is all slow for this.”

Shrestha said that they were facing resource and manpower crunches for developing the internationally recognised courses. “But there is a lack of national policy for adopting semester system presently,” he added.

Lekhnath Paudel, sub-spokesperson at the Ministry of Education, denied the lack of policy and said that autonomous body TU was responsible for not implementing the programmes. “Ministry can support TU if it takes initiative on this matter,” he said, adding politicisation in the university has marred it.

This news article was published on THE HIMALAYAN TIMES on April 12.