However, the feasibility of a TU that is functioning and reliable may not be a complete contradiction in terms. The university´s Free Student Union, led by Himal Sharma reckons that a complete restructuring of TU and its components is possible, and that work is well underway to render it possible.
It has been one year since the union has been under the leadership of Sharma, and he claims that there are various activities in and around the university which already have and are in the process of being undertaken that will prove to make the university a more "legitimate and respectable one".
"Tribhuvan University has been totally corrupted, and we are trying to save it," says the 36 year old. Sharma´s plan of action has been seemingly divided into a few areas of concern; the union´s foremost priority being action along the lines of educational reform.
"In terms of educational reform, a huge problem that we face is the issue with the examination system," he elaborates. And this concern has been voiced before, on many occasions by students throughout all departments. The union´s general Secretary Manushi Bhattarai has also been actively engaged with the concerned university authorities in this regard for many months now. It has been commonplace to see the university come to complete standstill over the university´s complacency in publishing examination results on time.
"Three months, that´s the time frame we have given to the university (to publish results) and one which was agreed upon by the concerned authorities. We are determined to make this happen," says Sharma. They have been sitting meetings with the Examination Controller´s Office on this regard and have been promised results, most literally.
However, the examination issue stems from a larger concern of not having an academic calendar in place that the university can abide by. "We have finalized this calendar this year for the first time, and we will make sure it is implemented," Sharma hopes. This in itself is a progressive movement for the university.
With the academic calendar as the backbone, the actual educational reforms are also on their way, Sharma claims and further says, "We will not allow professors of the university to open private colleges." The reasons for this are relatively obvious. With TU professors opening up private colleges throughout the city and Nepal left, right and center, it has meant a variety of things. Firstly, the profit incentive of private educational ventures means that the professors loyalties lie outside of TU and they simply are failing to turn up for classes, or prepare for them. Similarly, there have been complaints raised time and again of examination papers being leaked to the professor´s respective private college pupils, such that competition between the public and private sector educational institutions can be deemed farcical.
"Thus, it is necessary that our professors are dutiful. They must come to work, must teach and remain on duty when required," says a frustrated Sharma. He is of the opinion that the professors are engaging in the "profitable business of private education while the university students are suffering".
While educational reform remains the union´s largest objective, there have been a few rather aesthetic reforms that have come to the university in the past year. "We have warded off all of the heaths and green spaces for the first time," says Sharma. This in itself is a healthy change for the university. Not long ago, grazing cows from Kirtipur, often outnumbered lounging students on the campus grounds. Additionally, there has been a ban put in place for those outsiders learning how to drive in the premises, and the warded areas have not only kept the cows out, but also regular date-goers from throughout the city that flock to the relatively quiet and open space.
For a union that rakes in on average Rs 180,000 a year, with Rs 60 coming from each student, a fair bit has already been done and is underway. And if it´s not educational reforms, the university´s union has also been active in lobbying to simply protect the status of their university.
"The World Bank was trying to take the university toward autonomy, toward privatization, but we have stood firm against this," says Sharma. He accounts such activity to an "academic mafia," that pushes for such extreme reforms. Such lobbying has proved fruitful as, till now TU remains a public university, and the only one in the country at that. The prospect of privatizing the university would be disastrous for the students and the country alike, with no other institution of its kind in existence.
With regards to the age-old issue of the politicization of the university, Sharma simply shrugs, "When the Vice-Chancellor himself is a political appointee then a degree of politicization is only to be expected. Of course we would all like an apolitical union and university but, de-politicization needs to start from the top."
It is such politicization and arbitrarily bureaucratic norms and rules surrounding promotion and temporary and permanent staff that the union has been lobbying against. "The rules are simply arbitrary, all over the place and they need some structure that is acceptable," Sharma says. He points to the fact that they have already conjured up and presented some ideas on how to make acceptable sense of the system of promotion and turning those temporary staff into permanent ones.
While a TU that is on par with international standards of education and institutions may not be an immediate possibility, the union has certainly built up a long ´to-do´ list in the hopes of bringing the university on a comparative playing field. However, what remains to be seen is whether in the next few years, all these agendas will have been ticked off that list, done and dusted.
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