National Assembly passes ‘Nepal University Bill’

KATHMANDU: The National Assembly session on Monday passed the 'Nepal University Bill, 2080' by a majority. Minister for Education, Science and Technology Ashok Kumar Rai had presented a proposal in a session of the Upper House of the Federal Parliament seeking passage of the Bill. Similarly, a motion was introduced in the session seeking deliberations on the Bill along with the report of the Legislation Management Committee. The bill designed to make provisions related to Nepal University will pave the way for establishing a new university. The government had registered this bill in the parliament last November, citing the necessity of making higher education and research of high standard, useful for life, innovative and timely. It is stated in the Bill that the Nepal University will be established as a not-for-profit and non-governmental public university to produce skilled, creative and competitive human resources with the goal of contributing to building a prosperous state by creating new knowledge and innovation through multi-disciplinary studies, teaching and research based on liberal arts. Education Minister Rai said the university should be opened appropriate to the federal structure and the government was positive for bringing the Integrated Education Policy for that purpose. He, however, said that adequate study has to be made for this. One hundred bighas of land can be made immediately available for establishing the university outside Kathmandu Valley, he said. Preparations are underway to bring an Education Umbrella Act for designing the curriculum and determining its quality, said Minister Rai. There is a need to bring the education policy and the umbrella act related to higher education to identify whether or not it requires more universities in the country in the context when there are already enough, said Khimlal Devkota on the occasion. Similarly, Ganga Kumari Belbase stressed the need for improving the quality of the universities operational in the country by ending their politicisation. Other lawmakers, Suresh Kumar Alemagar, Kumar Dasaudi and Narayan Prasad Dahal underscored the need for improving the quality of education and focusing on the quality of universities instead of adding their numbers. READ ALSO:

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