Following Tribhuvan University’s decision to withdraw the planned expansion of the semester system, the majority of its constituent colleges have announced admission under the annual system in Management, Humanities and Education streams.

In a public notice on Sunday, the colleges have called for applications starting on Monday. Students willing to join the masters level in the three faculties can apply for two weeks till February 9, a day before the commencement of classes. Under pressure from the student unions, the TU executive committee had on January 19 decided to expand the semester system in Science, Law and Public Administration streams. A coalition of 15 student unions affiliated to the ruling and opposition political parties, are against the planned expansion of the semester system in the Valley colleges. They accused the TU administration for expanding the programme without proper preparation, saying that the university lacks competent human resources for the new system.

Under its plan to revamp the higher education, the TU had introduced the semester system in all of its 32 central departments last year. It had planned to introduce it in all the Valley colleges this year and the rest by next year. The student protest has delayed the new academic session by more than a month.

Earlier, the TU had invited applications from students by January 4, with an entrance test set for January 13 and classes were scheduled to start on January 29. But it has now been postponed until February 10. Contrary to the unions’ claim that the programme was introduced without preparations, the results under the semester system suggest two fold increase in the pass rate. On an average, the pass rate 75 percent of students have passed the exams compared to 25 percent under the annual system.

source: the kathmandu post,26 jan 2015