Concerns raised over growing number of universities

The National Assembly on Wednesday, 4 August, endorsed a bill to establish a new Yogmaya Ayurveda University with a majority vote. Once the bill has been passed by the House of Representatives, it will pave the way for setting up the university, which will be Nepal’s 12th. As all major parties are unanimous on the bill, its passage by the lower house looks certain, but concerns have been raised about how many universities the country actually needs, writes Binod Ghimire for The Kathmandu Post.

The new university, which will be fully funded by the government, will be established in Arun Valley, which straddles Sankhuwasabha and Solukhumbu districts in eastern Nepal. The university is named after Yogmaya Neupane, a pioneer mid-20th century social reform campaigner and poet from Bhojpur. The bill says there is a need for a university to produce qualified human resources in ayurvedic medicine and this will be addressed with the establishment of the Yogmaya Ayurveda University.

There are more universities in the pipeline and, if things go as planned, the country will have 16 universities in a couple of years. Education experts, meanwhile, say that, although it is good to have more universities, they should be set up on a need basis and with proper planning. Kamal Krishna Joshi, former chair of the University Grants Commission, says there is a growing tendency among politicians of announcing universities without proper homework and planning. “First we should figure out what kind of human resources are needed in the next 10 or 20 years and universities should be set up accordingly,” he told the Post. “I haven’t seen such planning.”
Full report on The Kathmandu Post site