Renu Kshetry

Kirtipur, January 23:

Tribhuvan University, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, has announced new rules that will bar students from pursuing two Master’s of Arts degrees under the faculty and pursuing a MA degree in a subject that is different from his or her major in BA.

Professor Dr Ramesh Raj Kunwar, dean of faculty, told The Himalayan Times that the new provision would be made effective from the next academic calendar. “There used to be a huge confusion while taking new enrolments for MA courses due to double enrolments. To eradicate this problem, the faculty has decided to introduce the new rule,” he said.

The new provision would also bar students from pursuing a MA degree in a subject that is different from his of her major in the bachelor’s level.

However, MA in Rural Development, Library Science, Sociology and Anthropology, Culture and Political Science will remain open for all. Students having any bachelor’s degree from any faculty could enroll for these subjects as they are relevant to every field, including agriculture, engineering, medicine and the like, Kunwar said. But priority will be given to those who hold a arts degree in bachelor’s level, he added.

The new rules are on par with the TU Association and Academic Administration Regulation 1993, which had not been strictly implemented.

“We are just going to implement the already existing regulation,” he said. The decision has already been forwarded to departments and colleges concerned within the faculty.

Earlier, students use to enroll in one subject and they used to enroll in another subject in the next year without passing the first one. This had lead to a poor pass rate in MA.

The faculty expects the new rules will also check excessive pressure on certain subjects in Master’s level as the students would now apply for only the subject in which they are really interested, and which is their major in BA.

There are 29 different subjects (departments) under the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in bachelor’s level.

The TU has endorsed also a new rule that will seek students wanting to join TU’s MA courses to submit their equivalence certificates if their BA degrees are not from TU.

Meanwhile, in order to increase the enrolments in low-intake subjects like history, Maithali, TU will now enroll students having any major in their BA to join MA in these subjects.