If most of the new universities in Nepal should be of relatively small size with fewer than 3,000 students (“Universities: The size debate”, February 3), where will they find their students initially?

Let us go about answering this question in several different ways. These universities are unlikely to attract foreign students in the beginning. If in-country students constitute the universe of potential students, we might begin by identifying those that are not likely to apply to these universities.

Non-applicants

Students from families who have attended elite private schools in Kathmandu are unlikely to apply for two reasons. First, cultural dynamics within their class location would almost always encourage them to apply to universities abroad. If most members of a graduating class from these schools are applying to universities abroad, it would take an exceptional family decision to buck the trend.

Second, the new Nepali universities will be an “unknown” entity in the beginning. Until enrolled students and graduates begin to talk about their positive experiences in these institutions, there will not be enough of an attraction for students from elite families to consider attending them. They would rather go to third-tier foreign institutions than attend Nepali institutions that have not yet created an aura of belief around them. The only exception would be the folks who want to study medicine in Nepal’s older universities and medical academies.

Then there is a second group of Nepali students who have attended all kinds of schools bent on going to higher education institutions (HEIs) in Australia, Canada and Japan who are equally unlikely to apply to new Nepali universities. Many Nepali students are going to Australia and Canada in large numbers not only to attain higher degrees but also to gain permanent residency in those countries. Some months ago, I met a young man on his way to a Canadian university who had thorough knowledge about the “point system” of the Canadian Federal Skilled Worker Program. He detailed his work plans after graduating from college to attain those points quickly to become a permanent resident of Canada sooner than later.

Nepali students are going to Japan in large numbers because it allows them a route to their HEIs as part of what anthropologist Dipesh Kharel, who has researched this phenomenon, calls “Japan’s side door policy for bringing in unskilled labour.” This explains the high number of Nepali students in Japan attending culinary schools. In other words, even the founding of very good new universities at home will not stop the flow of Nepali students to HEIs in some countries if those individuals are bent on using their student visas as stepping stones to become long-term migrant workers and permanent residents in those countries.

Passive approach

Who is likely to apply to the new Nepali universities then? Let us take the institutionally passive approach first. The opening of good new universities that are relatively affordable will offer an alternative to students from middle-class and low-income families from all over the country. The students and their families would certainly be taking a risk in applying to these new, untested institutions but that might seem like a reasonable risk to take given the relatively dire state of most of the older Nepali universities. However, when seen from the vantage point of the new universities, there is a large pool of potential students from these classes who could apply to them.

Passive institutions can set the basic criteria (e.g., 12th grade pass with a certain GPA) for eligibility. The young women and men who meet those criteria can be expected to apply to these universities in adequate numbers. These institutions then could teach the matriculating students without thinking deeply about their institutional missions amid the various structural inequalities of Nepali society.

Active approach

Alternatively, let us discuss the institutionally active approach in which realising a pluralistic student body is an important goal for these new universities. Talking about pluralistic ideals in the student body of Indian universities, historian Ramachandra Guha wrote in 2007, “There must be many women students; in the ideal situation, 50 percent or more. Students from low caste and working-class backgrounds must be adequately represented; so also those from minority religions.”

Following Guha, we can ask: What can be the goals of new Nepali universities if pluralism in their student bodies is important? Aiming for gender parity among students would be an important goal. Given that many young men are choosing to drop out of high school to go and work abroad, Nepal’s old universities have already seen gender parity in many disciplines of late. So attaining an equal presence of young women and men in these new institutions should not be all that difficult if the families are convinced that these institutions are safe for their daughters. Creating friendly institutions to attract non-heteronormative students would be equally important.

Talented students from Bahun, Chhetri, Newar and some other dominant communities will surely apply without much prodding. However, if the new universities are serious about creating a pluralistic student body, they would have to actively recruit students from communities which have been traditionally under-represented (in relation to their percentage in the overall population) in higher education. This is not necessarily to suggest the implementation of an affirmative admissions policy. Instead, I am pitching for an active admissions office with staff members who scout for talented Dalit, Janajati (especially the smaller and less-wealthy groups) and Muslim students in Nepal’s schools who meet the basic eligibility criteria set by the concerned university. Many such students are likely to be first-generation college goers, and it would be important to also convince their families that the supporting academic programmes they would need once they matriculate are actually present in these institutions.

It would also require an active admissions office to reach students from working class families. As a 2022 article by my colleagues Shyam Kunwar and Devendra Uprety has shown, students from working class families change schools often when their parents move for work. Hence, admission scouts will have to deploy inclusive recruiting strategies that can “capture” talented students from highly mobile working class families.

Those who are against the opening of new universities in Nepal often state that since some of the existing universities do not have many students, the country does not need new universities. This would be a laughable argument in a loktantra if it were not a tragic one, to begin with. Given that there were about 350,000 students who took the 12th grade school exam during each of the past two years (and this number is likely only to increase), there is no dearth of potential students in the country for quite a few small-sized new universities. 

So the challenge lies elsewhere: Can the promoters of these new institutions employ active strategies to recruit a truly pluralistic student body in their institutions from the very beginning? The answer to this question is crucial to all of our future efforts for social inclusion and justice in Nepal.