KATHMANDU, Jan 3: The University Grants Commission (UGC) will take over the responsibility of providing academic equivalency previously handled by Tribhuvan University (TU), starting from the upcoming fiscal year (mid-July).
The government amended the law to transfer the responsibility of equivalency—a process required for further study or work in Nepal after completing higher education domestically or abroad—from TU’s Curriculum Development Centre to the UGC. UGC Chair Prof Dr Devraj Adhikari said preparations have begun to implement the change.
Academic equivalency determines whether education obtained from foreign institutions aligns with Nepal’s standards. TU’s Curriculum Development Centre had been performing this function for the past three decades.
TU certificate equivalency service goes online
Following the transfer, the UGC has formed a seven-member committee under the leadership of member Prof Dr Yogendra Bahadur Gurung to draft policies and procedures for equivalency. “The commission plans to set up a dedicated equivalency section and has requested 23 additional staff from the government,” Chair Adhikari said. “Our policy is to make equivalency accessible and efficient for students, which requires more manpower.”
UGC Deputy Director and member-secretary of the equivalency committee, Dularaj Chimariya, said that students from domestic universities will no longer need equivalency certificates, as these institutions are established and regulated under the government’s laws. However, equivalency will still be required to assess education obtained from foreign universities. The commission will develop the necessary policies and procedures to determine these standards.
Chimariya added that the commission plans to make the entire process paperless, from application submission to issuing certificates, enabling online services.
Currently, students from any university in Nepal must obtain equivalency from TU’s Curriculum Development Centre. Once UGC begins handling the process, it is expected to remove disparities between domestic universities, Chimariya said.
Ramkrishna Tiwari, Executive Director of TU’s Curriculum Development Centre, expressed confidence that TU will continue its curriculum-related work smoothly once equivalency is transferred. He said that the centre was established in 2016 BS (1959 AD) to develop and revise TU courses, particularly for mandatory subjects like Nepali, English, and Nepal Bhasa. As Nepali students increasingly pursued higher education abroad after 2050 BS (1993 AD), the centre also began managing equivalency.
Tiwari said that over 50 students visit the centre daily for equivalency-related work, which has increasingly challenged TU’s capacity to focus on curriculum development and revision. He believes that transferring equivalency to UGC will streamline the process and reduce delays that previously forced students to wait for months.
