Bhaktapur, August 27:

Education experts said today that the constituent campuses of the Tribhuvan University should be granted autonomy to make them more competitive and reform them as per demands of students.

They were speaking at an interaction programme on ‘Reform Grants to TU Autonomous Campuses under Second Higher Education Project’ organised by the University Grant Commission.

Chairman of the University Grant Commission Dr Kamal Krishna Joshi said the TU constituent campuses should do the needful to make their campuses academically, administratively and financially sound.

“Autonomy of the constituent campuses would help make them self-sustained and impart education as per the demand,” Joshi said. “The initial move to increase the number of universities in Nepal could be through granting autonomy to these campuses.”

He said the campus chiefs should be able to change the risk into opportunity by properly handling the challenges regarding self-sustainability for the autonomy of their campuses.

Other education experts and participants at the programme also laid emphasis on granting autonomy to constituent campuses of the TU.

The government has implemented the Second Higher Education Project with the support of

World Bank’s International Development of Association to enhance quality education.

The World Bank would be providing Rs 130 million as incentive grant, Rs 975 million as performance grant and Rs 1,300 billion as matching

grant under Reform Grant, one of the main components of Second Higher Education Project.

According to Subash Chandra Dhungel, acting chief administrative officer at the UGC, 16 Tribhuvan University constituent campuses have applied for the reform grant and out of them, six campuses would be provided the funds.