The quality of education in Nepal fails to match international standards for a number of reasons. Basically, the standard itself is very low and on top of it, the majority of underprivileged children are unable to make the most of whatever the state has to offer. That is why thousands of students are compelled to go to either India or other Asian and Western countries to pursue their academic goals. In this process, huge funds are channelised elsewhere, which could have, to a certain extent, fulfilled the needs of their own resource-poor country. In this context, TU’s new emphasis on granting autonomy to its affiliated campuses comes as a promising development.

TU’s general body meeting has approved the “Regulations related to Tribhuvan University Autono-mous Institutes and Campuses 2006.” Accordingly, the dissemination of quality education through educational institutions or colleges under it may be expected, with good reasons, to become more effective. Autonomy encourages innovation and bolder

decision-making at the campus level. The long tendency of looking to the central administration even for decisions that could confidently be left to the campus level should come to an end. The new regulations offer a ray of hope.

But with autonomy should come accountability, which needs to be extracted rigorously to punish poor performance. The new rules profess to extend the areas of scientific knowledge by developing more innovative technologies and making education more practical. The strategy also seeks to make institutions financially sustainable, besides strengthening education and administration by including all the stakeholders in the decision-making process. The teachers and students, too, need to focus on their primary goal of imparting and receiving education. Even more important is the need to make TU’s central administration more efficient and effective, and this is not possible without extracting accountability from those who hold high offices at TU.