How the Academia-Industry Gap is Undermining University Transformation in Nepal?

Nepalese higher education is undeniably under threat from multiple issues and challenges. One major problem is direct political interference in university systems. Student politics has also become sycophantic, often serving as a puppet to their parent political parties. There is gross managerial negligence in university administration, along with excessive and widespread corruption. Power politics, favoritism, and internal groupism further weaken the system. Additionally, examination and evaluation mechanisms are slow and inefficient. Curricula are outdated and fail to meet modern educational needs. On top of all these, profit-driven private colleges attract students with false promises.

While discussing these challenges within the system, it is equally important to recognize that higher education is not a self-referential system but a complex network of interconnected parts within a larger socio-economic system. Although this is a lesser-discussed issue within academia, the sluggish business environment, combined with the academia-industry gap, has indeed misguided and hindered the transformation of higher education in Nepal.

Too many universities but too few opportunities to apply academic knowledge

The number of universities and higher education institutions in Nepal has grown rapidly in recent years, but industrial growth across various economic sectors has failed to keep up with this pace. The industrial sector's share of Nepal's GDP decreased from 6.20% (FY 2014/15) to 4.87% (FY 2023/24). The rise of the consumer market, job possibilities, industrial expansion, infrastructural development, and economic diversification have not accelerated their progress at the same rate as the emergence of new universities in Nepal.

Universities are springing up even in areas that lack comparable industrial complexes, growing consumer markets, and commercial prospects. As a result, graduates are unable to obtain internships, explore business possibilities, or find immediate work that aligns with their academic background. In the absence of industrial growth and market expansion in different economic sectors for most of the students, from undergraduates to PhD degree holders, their association with higher education in Nepal only remains as a transit point for brain drain.

Moreover, the limited expansion of the industrial and consumer markets has restricted the availability of jobs that require broad knowledge, advanced skills, and sophisticated methodological competence. Hence, many graduates find themselves working in jobs that do not properly utilize their comprehensive and complex higher education learning. More importantly, anxieties and frustrations of underemployed and unemployed university graduates have dribbled down into the majority of high school students who are aware of limitations within the Nepalese job market. As a result, there is an ever-growing trend in Nepal among high school graduates to seek admission to foreign universities rather than complete their higher education degrees in Nepal.

Mismatched Alignments

Due to the slow pace of industrial growth and economic diversification, higher education institutions in Nepal are increasingly finding it difficult to align their academic programs with the industrial requirements and labor market needs. For example, the University Grant Commission (UGC) has focused on preparing labor market-driven academic programs that enable graduate students to absorb themselves in the job market or link up with the market through entrepreneurship. However, in the absence of proper industry-academic collaboration, it is very difficult for Nepalese universities to set educational standards necessary for students to effectively absorb themselves and assimilate into the job market or link their entrepreneurship within the business environment.

Additionally, universities and businesses in Nepal are not on the same page because the theories, concepts, and courses that universities employ are from developed economies, while most of jobs in Nepal primarily require procedural knowledge and manual skills at the operational and supervisory level in a variety of industries, from manufacturing and services to the financial sector. As a result, although graduates of Nepali colleges have advanced knowledge, they lack the operational competence and practical, hands-on skills needed by the majority of Nepali enterprises and start-up companies.

The need for updated programs that align with market demands is a recurring theme in Nepalese universities these days. Kathmandu University (KU) has established the Academia-Industry Cooperation (AICKU) for the purpose of overcoming academia-industry gaps. However, misaligned priorities, mismatched perspectives, a lack of empirical data on the industry-academia skill gap, and the application of business models that are unfamiliar to academic orientations continue to hinder collaboration between industrialists and academics in Nepal.

Limits on Practical Training, Internships, and Research

Due to industry-academia gaps, calls for curricula to incorporate practical, skill-based learning, internships, and real-world projects have become mere academic documentation exercises for course requirements. Besides, there are restrictive opportunities for industry-based practical training and collaborative projects in Nepal, as industrialists and businesses accustomed to structured project plans and deliverables feel that fresh graduates lack the practical skills and experience needed to contribute effectively to industry projects. Even students have to travel abroad for their internships. Hence, there is self-doubt among students about whether they are studying for the Nepalese job market or for foreign employment opportunities.

Furthermore, the lack of industrial growth also hinders the development of research in institutions of higher education. Without industrial adaptation and support, even publication in first quartile (Q1) rank journals becomes a self-referential basic research driven by theoretical exploration without context for application. In advanced economies, there is massive funding for research in universities from industries and corporations; hence, each domain of knowledge specialization comes up with disruptive conceptual models, new insights, transformative knowledge, innovations, and advanced methodologies that sustain industrial growth and market outreach. However, due to slow economic growth and sluggish market expansion, the business community in Nepal has not been able to expressively fund research projects, establish research centers, and initiate collaborative projects with institutions of higher education.

Bridging the Academia-Industry Gap

Rather than simply increasing the number of federal, provincial, and deemed universities, the government of Nepal needs to develop policies that assist local businesses and industrialists in expanding their industries, units, and services where new universities have been established, as well as industrial complexes where entrepreneurs can start their businesses with low overhead costs. This will allow university graduates to either integrate into the business environment or enter the workforce. Besides, to guarantee that graduates have the particular skills and contextualized knowledge required to thrive in the Nepalese business environment, universities in Nepal must also work with various industries to gather industry-specific knowledge, collect empirical data, and comprehend emerging trends in various economic sectors.