While Nepali universities are struggling to enrol enough students in their nursing programmes, hundreds have left the country to study the course abroad.

As many as 351 students including 288 for bachelor’s level received permission from the Nepal Nursing Council to study abroad in the current fiscal year. Along with the no objection certificate, permission from the council is a must to study the nursing course abroad. According to a report from the Nepal Medical Commission, some 1,000 students have left the country to study MBBS and MD/MS programmes abroad.

While 701 students received permission for MBBS studies, 266 got the permission for the master’s programme. “The commission’s permission is necessary to study medicine abroad,” said Dr Srikrishna Giri, vice chairperson at the commission. Although Nepali medical colleges have been getting enough students for the MBBS and higher programmes, they are struggling to get their nursing student seats filled. For instance, the Kathmandu University couldn’t get enough students for its bachelor’s in nursing programme for the current fiscal year.

The number of students opting for higher studies abroad is increasing like never before which is causing a decline in student enrollment at domestic institutions. A record 121,000 students obtained no objection certificates to study in over 72 countries last year. They took along close to Rs64 billion.

With the rise in the Nepali students flying abroad, the Ministry of Education on April 2 issued a directive stopping the students from travelling abroad for technical courses. It said no permission would be issued for the non-university courses like diploma, advanced diploma and language courses.

However, after pressure from education consultancies, the government rolled back its decision. It resumed issuing ‘no objection certificate’ from the last week of April. The ban had led to a decline in the number of students aspiring to study abroad by over 40 percent. The number had sharply declined for Australia and Japan.