Tribhuvan university

Tribhuvan University (henceforth, TU) is the first national institution of higher education in Nepal. It was established in 1959 A.D. and named after the late King Tribhuvan. The Central Administrative Office and the Central Campus of the university are located on the north eastern facade of Kirtipur, an ancient and small town located five kilometers away from downtown Kathmandu. There are five Institutes, four Faculties, thirty eight Central Departments, four Research Centres and sixty Constituent campuses in TU and out of them one Institute, three Faculties, 32 Departments, 3 Research Centres and two Constituent campuses are at Kirtipur. The university at Kirtipur is spread over an area of 154.77 hector (3042-5-2 ropani).

After the second democratic movement of 2006, the Prime Minister of Nepal is the ceremonial chief, the Chancellor of the University, while the Minister of Education is the Pro-Chancellor. The Vice Chancellor is the Chief Executive of the university. He is assisted by the Rector in academic programmes and the Registrar in financial management and general administration. TU is a non-profit making autonomous institution funded by the Government of Nepal.

Main objectives of TU

The university was established with the following objectives:

To produce skilled manpower essential for the overall development of Nepal;
To preserve and develop historical and cultural heritage of the nation;
To accumulate, advance and disseminate knowledge; and
To encourage and promote research in Arts, Science, Medicine, Engineering, Agriculture, Management, Education and other vocational fields

Councils of TU

There are five councils constituted as major decision-making bodies of the university.

University Council : It is the supreme decision-making body on policies, budget, and rules and regulations for running the university. It consists of 52 members.
Executive Council : Executing the decisions of the university council, making decisions on grants, giving affiliation to private campuses, and appointing the university officials are its major functions. It consists of seven members.
Academic Council : The academic council makes decisions on educational policies and practices regarding curricula, teaching, examinations and research and comprises of fifty members.
Research Coordination Council : It formulates policies on TU research activities, approves guidelines for researchers and coordinates the functions of university level research organizations. The Research Division is the secretariat of the council which publishes TU Journal, Research Bulletin and Statistical Bulletin. Besides, it monitors mini-researches for teachers. It consists of 27 members.
Planning Council : The planning council performs an advisory role of preparing short and long-term plans, developing annual programmes and evaluating programme implementation. It consists of twenty-nine members.

Academic Programmes

TU marked its golden jubilee in the year 2009 organizing various programmes. In the 52nd year of its establishment, the university family remains committed and dedicated to making it a source and centre of quality education to set up a culture of learning in the country and to promote the notion of national and global peace and harmony.

Since its inception, TU, the state owned university, has, expanded its programmes in different disciplines. There are five technical institutes and four general faculties. The university offers 115 courses for the technical proficiency certificate level. TU offers 1079 courses at Bachelor’s level and 1000 courses at Master’s level. It offers Ph.D. degree in different disciplines both at the Technical Institutes and Faculties.

TU ran its programmes only through its constituent campuses prior to 1980.With the increasing number of students willing to acquire higher education; it was not possible for the university to accommodate all the students in the constituent campuses. This situation led to the establishment of colleges in the private sector because the constituent campuses of the university alone could not meet the demand of the nation. From 1979–80, TU started providing affiliation to private colleges to conduct various programmes at different levels. Eight hundred twenty six private colleges spread all over the country have so far received TU affiliations.

In the current academic session (2011-2012) altogether 3,89,460 students have been enrolled at various levels of TU academic programmes. 1,59,394 students (40.93%) study in its 60 constituent campuses and 38 central departments, while 2,30,066 (59.07%) students study in 826 affiliated colleges. It clearly reveals that affiliated colleges do have a higher number of students than the constituent campuses.

TU has 7841 teaching faculty and 7413 non-teaching staff including the support staff in its constituent campuses. The number of total employees is 15254.