The country’s oldest university has failed to implement the new academic calendar unveiled after the donor agencies pressed hard in November last year.

A team led by Soorya Lal Amatya, former rector of the Tribhuvan University, had drafted the calendar and later endorsed by the executive council on November 10 last year following several rounds of consultations with stakeholders, including student and professor unions.

The calendar has it that regular classes of Master’s first year shall be completed by March, annual exams shall be held by mid-April and results shall be published in mid-August. Had it been followed, the first year students would have been sitting for their exam by now. However, TU has not even called students to fill exam forms yet.

Likewise, Master’s second year classes should begin by mid-June, annual exams by first week of March next year and results by the end of July next year. But TU’s failure in implementing the calendar will delay the start of second year classes by three months.

Regarding Bachelor’s level, the idea was to start the new session of first year from September, exams between March and July and results by November. Bachelor’s second year classes should begin in mid-August, exams in mid-May next year and results by August end. As per the new schedule, third year classes have to start from June-end and exam by March end next year and results within three months.

Despite a lot of changes, the university has taken no step to this effect. Eight months have passed since the exams of Bachelor’s third year was held, but TU has not published the results yet. Delay in any level has spillover effects on other levels as well.

“It’s because of backlog of work,” said TU Registrar Chandra Mani Poudel, who also heads the university examination board. “We are preparing the strategies to work in accordance with the calendar.”

The calendar also aims at conducting 155 classes in all levels within one academic session and has made mandatory for at least 150 classes. As per the TU syllabi, each non-technical subject from intermediate to post-graduate level requires 150 classes to complete the course, but constituent colleges hardly run 100 classes in one academic year.

According to TU records, Ratna Rajya Laxmi Campus conducted 90, 95 and 85 classes of Bachelor’s third year and Intermediate first and second year, respectively.

source: The Kathmandu Post,22 April 2012