--By Upashana Neupane

 

Number of Nepali youths aspiring to study in foreign universities are increasing year after year. However, only some of these materialize their aspiration. Barriers such as tough admission procedures and poor financial condition strangle their desires to be part of an international academic institution that could have provide them exposure to the global employment market. Targeting these students many colleges have been offering world class academic courses affiliated to international universities here in Nepal and that too at affordable cost.

 

This trend of providing foreign university degrees started with the growing popularity of A Level courses. Coming now it has become an important part of Nepali education institutions’ brand value. According to Ministry of Education (MoE) 116 educational institutions affiliated to foreign institutions are providing academic courses in Nepal. Of these, 34 are providing Bachelor and higher level degrees (see table). Some of these courses are not available in institutions affiliated to Nepali universities. 

 

International university curriculums are respected globally for their excellence, diversity, flexibility and for the wide range of opportunities they offer to the student. This has increased attraction of students towards them and a consequent increase in the number of students enrolling in these colleges has been seen. Other factors that are contributing to this attraction are: timely completion of the courses, higher chances of job placement after completing the course, technology enabled pedagogy, enriched resources and the possibility of credit transfer to foreign colleges. 

 

“Academic programmes with foreign affiliations are internationally recognized, timely, and rigorous”, says Narottam Aryal, principal and executive director of the King's College. “These are some of the major factors contributing to the increasing interest of these institutions among students.”  Business studies courses are one of the most popular courses provided by these institutions. Nepali institutions have included additional modules to the courses prescribed by foreign universities. This customization caters to the need of the local market and has made their BBA and MBA courses even popular. 

 

Presently academic programmes affiliated to universities from the United Kingdom, the United States, Australia, Switzerland, Austria, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and India are provided in Nepal. Some courses are more advanced than those offered by local universities. Among them, management courses affiliated to the United States and United Kingdom universities are more popular. The popularity stems from the fact that these countries are economic powerhouses along with being birthplace for business and management education. Thus, their curriculum is timely updated with cutting edge skills that cater to the need of present day high tech businesses.

 

Many of these colleges provide full time faculty support to ensure that students learn beyond their curriculum. Pedagogical methodologies comprise usage of latest technology and learning flexibility and this makes their degrees more powerful. 

 

Besides these attractive sides of the foreign degrees, failure of Nepali Universities to deliver practical and regularly updated courses, strict implementation of academic calendar, including exam and results, and keeping politics out of the academic institutions have been providing additional reasons for Nepali students to enrol for foreign university courses. 

 

While foreign universities are increasing their penetration in Nepal, domestic universities have shown reluctance to grant affiliations to more institutions within the country itself. Most of these institutions, providing foreign university affiliated courses, claim to have resorted to foreign universities after local universities denied them such affiliations. They claim that such measures were essential to prevent students from going abroad and avert the outflow of capital and brain drain from the country. International Education Providers Association Nepal’s (IEPAN) recent survey reported that 15,000 students who had once opted to study abroad are currently studying foreign university courses offered within the country and thereby preventing outflow of over Rs 7 billion revenue annually. 

 

Despite the limelight that these academic institutions are receiving, none of them have so far acquired affiliations from renowned international universities like Harvard. One of the reasons behind this is the high amount of money to high amount of money needed to acquire their affiliation. Another of the reason is limited market. “Top ranked universities look out for larger market while providing affiliations, and as a small nation Nepal’s market for international education is limited,” Aryal said. Laxman KC, executive Director at Presidential College adds, “It’s very difficult to meet the criteria and the standard of such university.” 

 

Amid this surge in the number of institutions providing international university affiliated courses, presence of colleges not accredited by the MoE is also increasing. Existing legal provisions make it mandatory for any foreign educational institution to be accredited by law of the country of origin to operate in Nepal. However some institutions are operating without due to lack effective  monitoring. Moreover, some of these colleges are not transparent in the amount of tuition fees they charge to students and frequently raise their fees.