Parliamentary committee directs for immediate halt to affiliations from foreign universities

Kathmandu, Oct 20: A parliamentary committee has directed the government not to allow academic institutions at home to run programmes with affiliations from foreign universities/ institutions for the time being.

A meeting of the Women, Children, Senior Citizens and Social Welfare Committee today instructed the Education Ministry to immediately halt the permission to run the academic programmes from taking affiliations with international universities.

The meeting agreed to form a sub-panel to determine possible measures for the overall management and reform of higher education system in the country and sought the suspension of the permission to colleges run programmes with affiliations from foreign universities/ academic institutions in the country until the sub-committee submits it report. The decision is, however, is not applicable to the institutions already receiving the affiliations.

The parliamentary committee decided to look into the business of foreign universities in the country, following public complaints that they were charging expensive fees.

The 11-member subcommittee comprises Dr Ganeshman Gurung, Dr Baburam Pokhrel, Umesh Shrestha, Shreemaya Thakali, Nisha Shah, Sharada Poudel, Tejulal Chalal Chaudhary, Ramhari Subedi, Laxman Rajbanshi, Anandidevi Pant and Badri Pandey. It is assigned to submit the report within the next 15 days.

At the meeting, lawmakers present drew the attention of Education Minister Dhaniram Poudel towards a delay in bringing a Higher Education Policy in line with the new constitution and lack of monitoring of the quality of higher education. In his response to queries put forth by lawmakers present at the meeting, Minister Poudel said the Ministry had already introduced a 19-point action plan as it seeks to reform the entire education sector and was working accordingly.