A week after the major three student unions extended their support to Tribhuvan University in implementing the semester system in master’s courses, a dozen smaller unions have started a series of protests against the move.

Twelve student unions affiliated to the CPN-Maoist and Madhes-based parties demonstrated at all the TU constituent colleges that are set to start the semester system and forwarded a letter to the department heads of the respective colleges asking them not to start admission without their consent.

The TU has already invited applications from students. According to Sharad Rasaili, chairman of the All Nepal National Free Students’ Union-Revolutionary, the 12 unions will bar TU officials from entering their offices on Monday and organise a public hearing against the move.

He said the TU should roll back its decision to start the semester system until all the colleges running master’s courses are capable of implementing it.

Starting this year, the TU has decided to replace its annual academic system with the semester system only at its central departments which will be gradually extended to constituent and affiliated colleges. Presently, the oldest varsity has 61 constituent and over 600 affiliated colleges across the country.

“This will only bring disparity and increase the academic cost,” said Rasaili. The tuition fee for the master’s level will be more than doubled from around Rs 16,000 for a two-year programme to around Rs 40,000 under the semester system.

The unions are also against the TU applying a quota system for 300 students per faculty arguing that it will bar hundreds of students from studying for a post-graduate degree. The agitating unions have demanded 20 percent full scholarships and increasing the quota by ten percent every year.

The unions have formed a committee for dialogue with TU authorities regarding their demands. In a bid to improve degrading education in its colleges, the TU Assembly held in Pokhara last year decided to adopt the semester system starting this year.

Last week, TU officials signed an agreement with the representatives of the student unions close to the Nepali Congress, the CPN-UML and the UCPN (Maoist) to implement the semester system and to regulate the academic calendar.

source: the kathmandu post,24 feb 2014