KATHMANDU, JULY 5

Tribhuvan University has denied allegations regarding misbehaviour with students seeking equivalence certificate Releasing a press statement yesterday, TU said, "No staff of TU has misbehaved with Aastha Dahal who was seeking equivalence certificate."

Controversy had erupted between Aastha Dahal, a Kathmandu-based lawyer with a PhD in criminology from the University of Cambridge and TU after Dahal poured her frustration in social media a few days ago.

According to Dahal, she has been struggling to get TU equivalence certificate for around two years. However, TU has not provided any equivalence certificate to her.

It's not only the case of Aastha. Numerous netizens have shown keen interest in this particular issue. They have shared their personal experience through social media posts and comments. They have alleged that TU has not only misbehaved, but harassed students seeking equivalence certificate on multiple occasions.

"I am one of the victims after physical visits to TU 60 times. I am still on zero. Nothing hurts more than the situation when your country's education system troubles you for no reason," said Dr Sharad Chand. He further said, "They just let things go around the TU office. Almost all of the staff were rude and I had more than dozen verbal arguments."

"See the face of an academic institution's gatekeeper! Irregularity is naked everywhere in public institutions. They try to cover their faces publicising such fake press releases. My son completed +2 from Australia. He applied for equivalence certificate in the Higher Education Board (CDC). Since then, he has been facing similar problems," wrote Megha Raj Pokharel, adding, "It's been four years, but no one has responded responsibly till today. Asking for unofficial money is simple for them, which cannot be proved with any documentation. God! Save every democratic institution before democracy becomes a full-blown catastrophe!"

Meanwhile, CDC Executive Director Paras Nath Yadav said, "If students don't have all the required documents, we cannot grant equivalence certificates to them against the rules and guidelines of TU. Many files are pending due to this only."

"In addition, among the applications submitted for equivalence in TU, I would like to inform everyone that recognition and equivalency determination procedure of higher education degrees, 2021, has not been completed and the degrees that are currently in the process have not been stopped on the basis of personal bias," reads the press statement issued by TU today.

However, Dahal said, "TU continues to lie. I've just been sent this press release wherein the Curriculum Development Board has alleged that I lied and there was no misbehaviour, and that I didn't submit my documents for over a year and only submitted it a week ago. The receipt is issued by TU CDC after their own staff (on window 1) checked and confirmed that all documents were complete. The receipt was issued two weeks ago (as opposed to their claim of one week)."

According to her, there is no acknowledgement that there was outright refusal to accept my documents in November 2021.

"I've had people who have messaged me to tell me that their equivalence has been pending for 25 years! For 15 years! For 6 years! Every single individual has spoken of misbehaviour at the hands of CDC staff, including calling the police on the people who have asked questions about their files at the office. Would all of us lie? I was called by the CDC director's office yesterday and told that they were having trouble locating my paper based file (hard copies of thesis, transcripts, forms etc)," added Dahal.

She further said, "Let's hope they've found my files. Many foreign graduates harassed by TU have left Nepal to pursue careers in other countries. The human resource and skills that would have benefited our public sector have been lost for good. The rot at TU is so deep that they still think they'll create a narrative of lies and have the upper hand. At a time when so many cases have come to light, TU CDC should be ashamed to pretend as if it is an issue that only pertains to my case."

A version of this article appears in the print on July 6, 2023, of The Himalayan Times.