Pokhara University (PU) has been long regarded as one of the top universities of Nepal. But students of the university have begun to lose faith in it due to its mismanagement in the last few years. With some students reporting never having experienced timely examinations, they fear losing even more time as the pandemic draws out. Despite the fact that most Nepali students experienced the consequences of Nepali academic institutions' inefficiency at the height of the epidemic, Pokhara University students feel they are even more behind schedule as a result of postponed examinations and mismanagement.
The delays in exams first started happening in 2019. Three hundred forty-two students that had been newly enrolled to PU affiliated colleges with an overall grade of D+ were denied admittance in the board exam. This issue came into being from the decision of the National Examinations Board (NEB) in 2018 to implement a letter grading system. All universities revised their eligibility criteria. While other universities outright accepted applicants with a D+ score, PU officially announced a “C” grade minimum. As affiliated colleges of PU did not get the sanctioned number of students as per the set criteria, they appealed to the university for reconsidering its decision for bringing uniformity among Nepalese Universities, which the PU administration reportedly verbally agreed to. This led to a state of complete disorientation that resulted in a three-month-long delay in exams that only the Supreme Court solved after it issued an interim order to let the students appear in the exams. But, since the court’s ruling was interim, the court case dragged on for longer, resulting in another two-month postponement of exams in the following semester. The students were left stranded in this dilemma due to the lack of timely and informed decisions of Pokhara University regarding the enrollment criteria for ten-plus–two graduates at bachelor level.
Similarly, the future of 40,000 students was once again compromised when all academic sessions and examinations were halted due to the uncertainty in selecting the chair for two key positions; the Vice-Chancellor and the Registrar. The positions remained vacant for more than a year. This indecision occurred at a critical juncture in the Covid-19 pandemic when educational institutions were debating whether or not to incorporate online classes.
Even when the other universities held meetings of executive and academic committees, tried online classes, and devised plans to examine the students’ academic performances, PU students were left without any explanations. Nearly 7000 students who had passed their final year of their undergraduate and graduate degrees also couldn’t receive their certificates, barring them from pursuing various further opportunities academically and professionally. Pokhara University’s hesitance in conducting online exams also led to students losing more time.
Pokhara University's calendar appears to have been pushed back further than the calendars at the other universities. Students are once again anticipating their board examinations but have lost trust in the administration's ability to complete them on time. It will be interesting to observe if the University's trend of failing and alienating its students continues in the following days. Currently, the institution must cover a lot of ground in order to restore its place as one of the nation's trustable universities.
