Part-time lecturers at Tribhuvan University (TU) enforced a fresh round of padlocking on Friday at the offices of the vice-chancellor, rector, registrar, and TU Service Commission, intensifying ongoing protests against the university’s fast-track upgrading of the teachers.

This move follows a 19-day-long padlocking campaign by Nepal Student Union (NSU), affiliated with the ruling Nepali Congress. The additional action by lecturers has further paralysed the university’s central administration, which remained closed on Sunday.

TU recently initiated a fast-track procedure to appoint associate professors, senior associate professors, and professors through interviews, 'bypassing' the traditional written examination. The decision has drawn strong objections from the Association of Part-Time Lecturers.

Gokul Lechhabi Limbu, Rajendra Acharya, and Baikuntha Thapa — president, vice-president, and general secretary of the association respectively — allege that the system is designed to favour relatives and political affiliates.

According to TU officials, the process aims to bring experienced researchers into the academic service. The university’s Executive Council had recommended the fast-track recruitment of 120 professors, with advertisements published in the second week of June.

Vice-Chancellor Khadga KC defended the approach, stating that similar appointments had been made in 2019 and 2021 through the University Grants Commission.

However, the part-time lecturers argue that the appointments breach a prior agreement signed on July 2, 2024, which promised contract renewals for existing staff.

The agitating teachers demanded the cancellation of advertisements that allow appointments without competitive written exams, calling the process unconstitutional and exclusionary in a statement released by their union.