Why Nepal’s universities are straining to keep up with student demand

Educators in Nepal are grappling with a persistent challenge: employers report that graduates are not job-ready, a concern frequently raised in discussions among academics and industry professionals. This issue is increasingly viewed not just as a curriculum deficiency but as a critical human resource problem within universities and higher education institutions (HEIs).

The core of the problem lies in a shortage of qualified faculty. While constituent campuses report 12,082 full-time teachers, data from community and private affiliated campuses, which enroll about 62 percent of Nepal's higher education students, is not consistently collected. This lack of data makes it difficult to ascertain the actual number of full-time faculty, which is likely a fraction of what enrollment figures would necessitate.

The disparity is stark when comparing enrollment growth to faculty increases. Between 2016/17 and 2023/24, higher education enrollment in Nepal surged by approximately 71 percent, from 371,000 to 633,000 students. In contrast, the number of teaching staff in constituent campuses grew by less than 30 percent during the same period. This means students are entering the system at nearly twice the rate that instructors are being added.

Furthermore, the distribution of teaching capacity is uneven across institutions. Tribhuvan University, serving over 75 percent of students, has a student-teacher ratio of about 21:1 in its constituent campuses. However, other universities fare worse, with Kathmandu University at 25:1, Far-Western University at 47:1, and Nepal Open University at a striking 102:1. While public funding for higher education has increased, much of it has been allocated to infrastructure rather than full-time faculty recruitment, particularly outside Kathmandu.

These ratios are significantly higher than international standards, which typically range from 10:1 to 20:1. For instance, the average student-to-faculty ratio in U.S. degree-granting institutions was around 13:1 in fall 2022. Nepal's situation, therefore, appears dismal when measured against global benchmarks, impacting the quality of education and the readiness of graduates for the workforce.