All accusations are false, only students who lack documents are denied equivalence
KATHMANDU, JULY 15
Lawmakers raised the issue of students' struggles and humiliation while obtaining equivalence certificate from Tribhuvan University Curriculum Development Centre.
Rastriya Swatantra Party lawmaker Sumana Shrestha said TU treats students seeking equivalency inhumanely.
She talked about equivalency issues while speaking in the special hour of the Parliament yesterday.
"Students have been facing issues due to executive positions such as chancellor being held by the prime minister ceremonially," said MP Shrestha, "The education sector must be spared politicisation and the chancellor should be appointed according to the principle of meritocracy."
Similarly, CPN-UML lawmaker Bidhya Bhattarai said students are going through deep pain and failing to get opportunity due to equivalency issues. She said, "Although the Higher Education Policy, 2015, mentions about the development of proper system regarding equivalency for foreign degrees,TUCDC has been making students suffer."
She also said, "Students have been facing humiliating behaviour and struggling for years to obtain equivalency. They have also been facing hurdles in their career development.
Therefore, easy accessible path for equivalency must be created. Responsibility should be given to the University Grant Commission (UGC) so that students can get equivalency respectfully."
Lawmakers raised the issues of students seeking equivalency after various students took to social media to pour out their frustration over the humiliation they faced from Nepal's oldest University TU.
A large number of students have been facing equivalency issues for a long period of time. Some of them have not received the equivalence certificate even after struggling for decades.
Aastha Dahal, a Kathmandu-based lawyer with a PhD in criminology from the University of Cambridge has been struggling for two years for an equivalence certificate from TU.
Similarly, a total of 63 Nepali Pharm.D degree holders from India have been struggling since 2014 to obtain TU equivalence certificate.
Dirgha Raj Joshi received his PhD equivalency after twelve months of struggle and humiliation.
Likewise, Rajendra Sapkota, a differently-abled person has been struggling for more than six years now. He has not received anything other than humiliation.
"I returned to Nepal after pursuing my education from Cambridge with the hope of working and making my career here. However, now I don't want any equivalence at the cost of my dignity." Dahal told THT.
Similarly, Dirgha Raj Joshi said, when I asked TUCDC Executive Director Prof Paras Nath Yadav about expediting the process as I had returned to the US, he told me, "Your degree is real or fake.
I don't know if I should go and follow the process and wait. And he threw my degree and all certificates on the floor."
Another victim, differently-abled Rajendra Sapkota said, "I had submitted all the documents four years ago but when I visited again, the staff there said, 'Your file submitted here is lost, it is not possible as you have not submitted it online."
Meanwhile, TUCDC Executive Director, Prof Paras Nath Yadav has refuted the allegations regarding humiliation.
He said, "All the accusations are false. Only students who lack documents and processes are denied equivalency."
"Our office grants equivalence to 60-100 students a day. However, only a few are complaining," TUCDC Executive Director Prof Paras Nath Yadav told THT.
A version of this article appears in the print on July 16, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.
