Cover Story (Spotlight Weekly)

HIGHER EDUCATION
More May Not Be Merrier

In a country where only 13 percent of students pass out annually at the higher education, opening up new universities is not the only way forward. At a time when the country’s higher education is suffering from low pass rate and non-use of scarce resources, the government’s proposal to open up four new universities in a country with 50 percent literacy rate smacks of immaturity and visionless policy. Theoretically, the concept of having more universities may not be bad at all, but how can the government justify the diversion of fund to this area at a time when primary education is not performing well. When the country’s existing five universities are yet to prove their economic and academic justification, what will be the use of additional universities remain to be seen

By KESHAB POUDEL

Tribhuwan University, the country’s oldest and largest university, consumes over 90 percent of the annual budget of about Rs.1.5 billion but the university is yet to justify its investment as out of 100, only 13 students pass out annually. The performances of the students are also poor as only 5 percent of them secure first division marks.

Tri-Chandra college : The pioneer

Most of the bright students opt for further education abroad, only a few talented students work in the country. Majority of these third division and drop out students who are obviously a frustrated lot are also creating various problems in society.

Furthermore, most of the students who pass out securing first division marks belong to six technical faculties. The performance of students at Humanities and Social Sciences, Management, Law and Education are worst and their dropout rate, too, is the highest. From outmoded curriculum to crowded class rooms, disturbance and politicization, this is the grim reality of Tribhuwan University Education- the country’s pioneer institution of higher education.

Thanks to frequent strikes and political disturbance, the country’s institution of higher education witness the teaching learning exercise for less than 100 days every year resulting in the high failure rates, low achievement levels, high rate of examination repetition and high drop-outs.

Compared to fully government-funded Tribhuwan University, Kathmandu University (KU), the first private university, performs far better in all fronts including results and teaching learning exercise. Unlike TU where the tuition fees are very nominal, the KU’s annual fees are reasonably higher.

Students at convocation

Two other universities Purvanchal University and Pokhara University – which are very smaller in terms of number of students and faculties – also have better results than Tribhuwan University.

At a time when the country’s higher education system has been passing through a very critical phase, the government's proposal to open four new universities with an aim to decentralize the higher education appear to be nothing more than a political slogan.

Higher Education Scenario

There are five universities in operation, namely, Tribhuwan University (TU), Mahendra Sanskrit University (MSU), Kathmandu University, Purvanchal University and Pokhara University. The total population getting higher education still constitutes a very small proportion of about 2 percent only.

TU library : Budget constraint

According to the Economic Survey 2004/05, published by Ministry of Finance, in fiscal year 2003/04, TU had 61 of its own campuses, and 278 private campuses were affiliated with the TU, totaling 339 campuses. Number of students in TU Campuses is estimated to be around 198,565 including 119,139 in its own campuses and 79,426 in affiliated private campuses. This total is less by 8.1 percent against 216,017 students in fiscal year 2002/03. According to the policy of phase-wise integration of certificate level with higher secondary school 10+2 system, less number of students are expected to enroll in the certificate level, which is the reason for the lower figure.

TU has been providing health services since 1980 from TU Teaching Hospital, B.P. Koirala Lions Optical Study Center and Drug Abuse Center and TU Health Center at Kirtipur.

Mahendra Sanskrit University was established to enable people including scholars of other nations to secure wholesome knowledge of Sanskrit and to develop Nepal as a center of learning Sanskrit. In fiscal year 2002/03, there were 3001 students enrolled in its own and affiliated campuses. This number included 346 students of Karmakanda, yoga and Sanskrit language training. In FY 2003/04, with 820 students in the above-mentioned subjects, total number of MSU students stood at 3610.

Under Kathmandu University, there are 2959 male and 1746 female students enrolled in various subjects in FY 2002/03. In FY 2003/04, number of both male and female students increased to 3,740 and 2275 respectively. The numbers of students in its own campuses in FY 2003/04 are: 786 in School of Science, 521 in School of Engineering, 120 in School of Management, 128 in School of Education, 98 in School of Arts, and 586 in School of Medical Science. In colleges affiliated with it, there are 3056 students in medical science, 541 in management, 192 in arts and 14 in education.

Minister Nidhi : More Universities

Under the Purvanchal University, there are 4399 students enrolled in its own affiliated campuses. This number has increased to 6388 in FY 2003/04. In fiscal year 2002/03, 295 students graduated from this university. Following its establishment six years ago, Pokhara University currently has 4,616 students. As it is said, the University is now consolidating the programs rather than the expansion of affiliation.

Tribhuwan University

Despite opening up private universities, TU remains the major institution of higher education. It is providing opportunities to more than 200,000 students in different faculties. TU’s own campuses alone have 123,566 students at three different levels. According to Tribhuwan University Today 2004, there are 46,465 students in certificate level, 55955 in graduate, 18694 in postgraduate, 637 in doctorate and 1815 in other levels. In terms of institute and faculties, humanities and social science has the highest number of students with 46747. There are 34821 in management, 22831 in education and 11475 in science and technology. There are 4321 in Engineering, 1740 in medicine, 348 in forestry and 586 in agriculture and animal sciences.

TU has 5957 teachers, which include 314 professors, 895 readers, 3461 lecturers, 153 assistant lecturers, 646 teaching assistants and 488 instructors. There are 6641 administrative and support staffs, which include 1906 administrative, 2264 technical and 2471 utility staffs.

As it caters to a large number of students, more than 90 percent of budgets allocated to the TU are spent to feed the employees and teachers. So there is a nominal budget available to other academic sectors including maintenance and other academic activities.

With the support from the World Bank and United Nations Development Program, an Assessment of Tertiary Education Project was completed in 1995 recommending various suggestions to change the existing pattern. Under the World Bank Project, some modern structures were constructed in the Central Campus including construction of Education Control Office.

Other recommendations included developing the regional level campuses as a cluster institution of higher education, increasing monthly fees to mobilize the internal resources are yet to be implemented.

The report of High Level National Education Commission 1998 also recommended reducing the size of Tribhuwan University turning regional campuses into regional Universities. Although World Bank Projects on Tertiary Education recommended turning the regional campuses in Pokhara and Biratnagar as regional universities, the two universities Purvanchal and Pokhara were opened up ignoring the concept of regional university.

Tenth National Plan stresses the need to handover the regional campuses to the regional universities like Purvanchal and Pokhara. As it involves political matter, no one seems to be ready to take political risk by handing over two colleges Prithivi Narayan Campus and Mahendra Morang Campus of Pokhara and Biratnagar to the Pokhara and Purvanchal University respectively.

“The government cannot hand over existing TU’s property to any other institution without the amendment of Tribhuwan University Act,” said Dr. Professor Dr. Govinda Sharma, vice chancellor of the TU. "It is a good idea to have new universities but the question remains how they will be managed.”

The government has made many efforts to downsize the Tribhuwan University reducing its huge burden but they are yet to materialize. As long as there are no political commitments and clear policy on higher education, it is futile to expect any drastic change in the higher education.

Investment In Higher Education

The government investment in higher education has been decreasing, because higher education has become low priority in national budget allocations. According to studies, in 1985/86, higher education shared 33.41 percent of total education budget, 27.6 percent in 1991/92,17.68 in 1995/96 and 18.82 in 1999/00. In 2003/04 the budget was below 18 percent of total education budget. One of the interesting parts is that over 80 percent of this budget is spent to pay salary and other administrative works. Remaining 20 percent is spent in technical faculties. The humanities and social science, management and education sector receive virtually no budget.

“We don’t have any budget to buy even chalk and dusters. In many classes, we don’t have money to repair black boards,” said a campus chief of valley’s biggest campus on condition of anonymity.

According to the University Grant Commission (UGC), out of Rs.1.35 billion in 2002/03, Tribhuwan University secured Rs. 1.20 billion. Mahendra Sanskrit University 87 million, Kathmandu University 7.1 million, Purvanchal University Rs.17.6 million, Pokhara University Rs 7.2 million and affiliated campuses Rs 16.8 million.

“Among the higher education institution, TU is an exceptional case because of its historical role in the development of higher education in Nepal and also because of the sheer number of students and comprehensiveness in programs it runs. Although there are five universities in Nepal, in terms of total faculty and student population as well as in terms of number of programs, TU is the institutional synonym for higher education institution in the country. Almost 95 percent of the total higher education student population and the faculty members in the country belong to this university,” said H.R. Bajracharya. "It has 60 constituent campuses and 278 affiliated campuses all over the country.”

At a time when TU’s campuses have not been able to repair the facilities that were built decades ago, opening new university will add problems in resource distribution. As the University is heavily influenced by unstable political situation and many students and the teachers are directly involved in political activities, there are only a few possible ways out. Although there is a requirement that there should be a minimum of 150 days of instruction, the colleges are actually open for less than 100 days. According to the Ministry of Education, the government is planning to issue four ordinances to open four universities: Maharshijanak University in Janakpur, Siddartha Gautam University in Lumbini, Open University and another university in mid-western region.

The current situation indicates that only a narrow section of the population, the highest economic quartile of population particularly belonging to socially and politically dominant groups have access to higher education. Thanks to the low investment and lack of resources, majority of colleges are providing conventional courses of humanities and social sciences, management, general science and education.

Whether there is any justification for them or not, the ministers in the present cabinet want to open new universities (in their political constituencies) to please their voters.

Good Concept

Experts argue that the concept to open the multiple universities is a good concept but the question remains how they can justify in terms of resource allocations. Thanks to the low availability of budget, the country’s oldest university TU does not have money to fund new academic programs and over ninety percent of its annual budget is spent to feed the teachers and other employees.

“I don’t think there is anything wrong behind the concept of plural university as there is a requirement of academic competition to improve the overall quality. When there is only one university, it develops monopoly quality. My concern is whether they function differently or not,” said Professor Mohan Prasad Lohani. "The resources are very scarce in the country and there is always question of utilization of it. However, following the opening up new universities, the TU could also be forced to change its old way of functioning.”

Past experiences, however, show bitter experiences as opening up new universities meant increasing administrative structures rather than academic facilities. Country’s two universities Purvanchal and Pokhara have similar kind of problems as TU since their administration spending has already increased over the years.

If the new universities are also going to open following the footsteps of Purvanchal and Pokhara University, they will not make much sense. Only if the new universities concentrate their efforts to establish as a sound academic institution, will they really contribute to improve the quality of higher education in Nepal.

Budget For Administration

As the government is gradually limiting the budget to higher education, TU is compelled to cut down its budget in building maintenance, academic sectors including library.

From central library to other library in a science lab of TU does not have budget to update with latest books. Since TU’s monthly fee is as low as the monthly fee of a primary school, it can contribute less than 10 percent of annual budgets. “We don’t have minimum budget to manage the library. We have already discontinued subscription of newsletters and periodicals and others,” said Krishna Mani Bhandari, chief of Tribhuwan University Central Library. ”We need budget to improve our electronic services which is very limited now.”

The libraries of other colleges, too, are in similar condition. Many college buildings do not have resources to renovate and furniture is inadequate. This is the grim reality of TU Campuses, which are gradually generating additional resources from the students. “In many colleges, the departments are given permission to raise certain amount of money to generate resources for themselves. This is a good sign,” said professor Lohani.

The student and teachers ratio is also unimaginable. In many departments, the teachers and students ratio are very unscientific. The student teacher ratio is varied in different campuses ranging from 1:100 to 1:50. However, in some subjects, there are more teachers than the students.

In Law Campus, number of students continue to decline and there are more teachers remaining idle. Other departments like political science, history, geography, home science, culture are facing similar situation where the interest of student is declining.

A few months ago in a seminar, the history teachers expressed concern over the dwindling number of students at college level. Similarly, the Home Science Department of Padma Kanya Campus, too, does not have adequate students. Since 1950, Nepal has made major strides in the area of higher education. There were only 2 colleges in 1952 and now the number has increased by many folds.

If the country’s oldest university has been facing these kinds of situation, there cannot be any economic justification of opening up new universities. The new universities, if they are opened, must give up their old mindset.

Success Of Kathmandu University

At a time when other universities are struggling for survival, Kathmandu University has proved that it can impart the quality education as well as ensure good academic environment to the students and scholars with a nominal government support.

Thanks to the initiative of Dr. Suresh Raj Sharma KU is producing high quality students in the country in the areas of management, medical science and education. Established as a first private University, KU still maintains its academic atmosphere preserving its identity.

Situated in Dhulikhel, 20 miles east of capital, the KU has its own campuses as well as affiliated campuses under it. The rate of success is high in KU as there is proper academic environment at university level.

Tale Of Two Universities

Although Purvanchal and Pokhara University were established more than five years ago, they are yet to prove effective institution for higher education proving distinct education that is different than TU. Instead of providing quality education and sound academic environment, they are working like affiliate university. As usual, both universities have more affiliated colleges in Kathmandu Valley than in their own regions.

This situation is developing even as these two universities were opened up as per the concept of decentralization of higher education.

Pokhara University – which was opened aiming to increase the number of colleges in western region – is now busy giving affiliations to new colleges in Kathmandu Valley. Same is true for Purvanchal University.

It is unfortunate to say that these two universities are regional only at the time of convocation ceremony. Otherwise they are based in Kathmandu Valley. Thanks to lack of clear concept on plural university and their use, duplication has become a rule rather than exception.

Whether there are any economic justifications or not, the government seems to be in no mood to give up its commitment to open the new university. "We are committed to open new university through the ordinance since they are already overdue,” Education Minister Bimalendra Nidhi told SPOTLIGHT. “Our aim is to open more opportunities in higher education.”

The minister argued that that his proposal to open new universities is not a new one as it is based on the report of High Level National Education Commission 1998 and the Tenth Plan. “As the Tribhuwan University is already overcrowded, its excess burden must be reduced handing over the regional campuses to regional university,” said Minister Nidhi.

Plural University is not a bad concept but the question remains how they will prove to be different than Tribhuwan University. The country does not require new brothers of Tribhuwan University but what is required is a separate academic entity. If other university will follow the steps of Kathmandu University, they will be the asset for the country.