Proprietors of TU private colleges picket assistant Dean

KIRITIPUR, August 10

Proprietors of private colleges of Tribhuvan University (TU) on Monday picketed Bishnu Hari Koirala, assistant dean, Faculty of Management, demanding that the process of giving approval to private colleges to run the four-year Bachelors of Business Management (BBM) programme be reviewed.

Koirala’s office was picketed for two hours from 10:30am. The BBM course is to be launched from the new academic session beginning mid-November.

The proprietors had picketed the assistant Dean in a symbolic protest against irregularities in granting approval to colleges to run the BBM course.

Nepal Private College Association (NPCA), an association of private college proprietors, had yesterday submitted a memorandum to the Dean of the Faculty of Management Professor Dev Raj Adhikari demanding transparency in the selection process of colleges for approval to run the new programme.

Devi Ghimire, vice president, NPCA, said that during the protest programme on Monday they asked the assistant Dean to either review the list of colleges which were selected for approval to run new programme or they would go to Supreme Court on August 12 asking for a stay order against the process.

A year ago, the Faculty of Management had sought application for approval from qualified colleges to launch the BBM course from new academic session.

More than 100 colleges had applied, but the faculty secretly enlisted the names of only a few colleges, which NPCA thinks don’t meet the criteria set by the varsity. Ghimire said, “We are not against approval of those colleges enlisted by the Faculty of Management, but we want transparency. We also want Tribhuvan University to thoroughly review the colleges from among the total applicants and select only those which meet the criteria.”

He alleged that among the colleges that were enlisted for approval to run the BBM programme, only a few met the criteria, while others were colleges operating under the patronage of TU officials.

According to Ghimire, a total of 280 private colleges had applied for approval to start the BBM programme from the new academic session.

However, sources said  the Dean’s Office had shortlisted only 16 colleges.

Approval criteria

• Colleges should have Quality Accreditation and Assurance Certificate from University Grants Commission or should be in the process of acquiring it.

• Colleges should also be able to show outstanding academic results for the last three years.

• Colleges should be ten years old with qualified faculty.