Thirty Tribhuvan University-affiliated campuses, registered to run different programmes, including Bachelors degrees, have vanished from the Kathmandu Valley, literally.

Interestingly, TU recently came to know about this while monitoring physical, academic and administrative activities of its affiliate colleges, a process launched this year. The university has not made public the names of the 30 colleges supposedly based in Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur districts.

According to a source, Lainchaur Kanya Campus, Hiralal Campus, Kantipur College and Kathmandu Campus are some of the colleges that have ‘disappeared’. The monitoring committee has already recommended the executive committee to scrap the registration of ‘missing campuses’. If the executive committee passes the monitoring body’s recommendations, the administration division will begin the process of taking action against them after publishing a public notice.

Bishnu Kumar Madane, member-secretary of the monitoring committee under the Office of the TU Vice-Chancellor, said the committee could not find proof of academic and administrative activities in those colleges.

Madane further said the monitoring committee could trace only 212 out of the 242 colleges registered in the valley.

Besides, the situation of the existing campuses is not satisfactory, he said. “The commitments these campuses had made during affiliation remain largely unfulfilled,” he added.

Though these campuses had pledged to operate from their own buildings, the monitors found that they were operating from rented rooms. Some colleges were not based in the places that they were supposed to be. “A campus, which had taken affiliation to run classes in Kalimati, has opened its office in Putalisadak and is running classes there. The campuses that were supposed to be established in Lalitpur have been established in Kathmandu,” he said, adding, “This is happening because of TU adminsitration’s lethargic and complacent approach.”

According to the committee, there are about two dozen such colleges.

As per rules and regulations, the TU should monitor affiliate campuses every year. The dean’s office has been collecting Rs 5,000 every year from each affiliate college as monitoring fees. But the VC’s office does not know whether the dean’s office has been monitoring the colleges regularly.

“When the office that grants affiliation to new campuses doesn’t monitor them regularly, such anomalies are bound to occur,” he added.

It has also come to light that around a dozen campuses have changed their names without informing the university. The monitoring committee has recommended the executive committee to scrap the registration of 30 colleges. The committee has sought clarifications from 150 professors, who have opened new affiliate campuses and have been teaching in both constituent colleges and private colleges without informing it.

source:the himalayan times,4 august 2013