Dhulikhel
FOURTEENTH CONVOCATION
WELCOME SPEECH
By
VICE CHANCELLOR
PROFESSOR SURESH RAJ SHAMA
November 18, 2008
(Marga 3, 2065)
Dhulikhel
Nepal
Honourable Prime Minister and Chancellor of Kathmandu University Mr. Puspa Kamal Dahal Prachanda, Your Excellency Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam, Honorable Minister of Education, Honorable Ministers, Respected Dr. Piyasakol Sakolsatayadorn President, Mahidol University, Your Excellencies, Respected Guests, Dear Parents and Students.
We are very pleased to welcome all of you to the 14th Convocation of Kathmandu University. As in the past, the hard work and the goodwill of many of our friends here in Nepal and outside has made it possible for us to organize this very special 14th Convocation. It is the first convocation by Kathmandu University a New Nepal after it has been declared a Federal Republic.
We are sincerely thankful to the Prime Minister and our Chancellor for giving us his extremely valuable time, interest and guidelines. We know sir there are many pressing issues for your attention. Even amidst this very busy time, you have traveled all the way to Dhulikhel, the Central Campus of the University to be with all of us. This is a big encouragement for all of us and especially to the students, the first graduates in a New Nepal!
I take this opportunity to thank our very distinguished guest His Excellency Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Dr Piyasokol Sakolsatayadorn for accepting our invitation. We are very inspired by your presence and eagerly look forward to hearing your message for Kathmandu University and our students.
I would also thank our Honorable Education Minister for her time and helping Kathmandu University in different ways.
I also sincerely thank all our distinguished guests and parents for being here to share these graduating moments of achievements in the education career of our students.
I would like to take a few moments to share with you some of my perceptions of higher education.
. Until about two decades ago most universities (or high seats of learning) and research establishments were developed and managed by government systems all over the world. The only exceptions were in the USA where independent foundations established and operated universities. In recent times many developed and newly developed countries have been transferring such responsibilities to independent managements. Generating additional resources, internationalizing education, and establishing stronger links with industries has become the new mantra in the management of institution of higher learning. These trends are being aggressively followed in Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Thailand, Australia and many countries in Europe.
· Germany and France appear to have moved from making outright grants to universities to using funding criteria based on hiring bigger number of international faculties, admitting brighter young students in bigger numbers, enhancing the abilities to sell more patents, recognizing ability to obtain bigger sums for research from the industries, and ranking of educational institute by international bodies. The days of guaranteed funding by the government for the universities may be almost over.
· Finding an academic position in highly rated institutions used to be a major attraction for bright academic people. However these days, because of the global competition, industries and business giants are commercializing higher education by supporting their own brand of academic institutions. US universities had already started a strong process of attracting best brains from other countries over the centuries. This trend appears to be spreading to other countries quite rapidly. The problem is not just external but also internal. The only solution for this increasing commercialization is stronger public-private or industry-academic partnership through a suitable system of sharing such people in improving the quality of education and also in making education more contributory to the development of economy.
Certain concerns like global warming and environmental problems, global energy problem, global health problems like HIV AIDs, cancer; Hepatitis, SARs, etc are both national and global issues. These issues must be addressed in close co-operation and jointly by the rich and poor countries. Education for increasing awareness, for appropriately addressing the problem or at different levels, for generating employment opportunities and for favorable environment policies, has become a strong common agenda in both rich and poor countries.
Nepal, in-spite of even its abundant natural resources and hard working people has remained a poor country. Nepal is behind because people lack modern technologies. National educational, economic and other policies have not been very effective for wider distribution of opportunities. Many of the present problems can be traced to the lack of modernization of our education system, our legal system and the failure of our political leadership to effectively address these issues. Excessive dependence on external support, probably now, needs to be replaced by greater self-reliance. Empowering our youths with most efficient technological and managerial competence could possibly be the best insurance for a better Nepal tomorrow. Here comes the role of universities. The challenge is not of size or age! It is in becoming smart, dynamic and productive.
Although our original aim was to develop ourselves as a residential Teaching cum Research University in Nepal, this dream has been only partially fulfilled. It is fully residential only for some of the programmes. We have made some progress in modernizing the facilities in the university and in spite of our commitment to promote e–learning and on line learning, this has not been possible. We are fully committed to developing it in the future.
The future for the university has many potential directions but also many challenges. Excellent Faculty is the most important resource any university can have. Kathmandu University has maintained reasonable standards so far in the context of Nepal. This indicates to be a major challenge in the future. Without competent faculty it will be very difficult to add new courses, to introduce new methods of learning and for higher education to be more responsive to the broader environment in which it is located.
How to make Universities sustainable in the future in an increasing competitive environment?
The challenges are both internal and external. These call for a flexible governance, adaptive academic programmes and responsive management systems – all of which are very new concepts in the education sector in Nepal. Given the significant political changes in the country and the fact that huge clouds of uncertainty still hover over us, we need urgently to find more effective solutions to these problems. There is a lot that we can learn from others. But we also need to learn to adapt, to redesign, and to make it a little more appropriate to the geographical, economic, political and social reality of the challenges before Nepal.
About 1400 graduates are receiving certificates today.
My Dear Students, you have been trained in important areas like medical sciences, engineering sciences and other applied sciences, in management, in arts and culture, and in teacher education. Take the advice, take the challenge and grab the opportunity. Make the future for yourself, for your country and if possible do something for the mankind. Listen to the advice we receive from the great people at our premises today who will be addressing you shortly.
Today we are lucky to have with us our new prime minister who shares many of these concerns for New Nepal. With us today are also the intellectual giants of our time, like Prof. APJ Abdul Kalam from India and Prof. Piyasakol who is from Mahidol University, a very reputed institute in Thailand.
Finally I would like to congratulate all the graduating students. Today is an important milestone in your life and as you cross this milestone, do not forget that every level of achievement, academic or otherwise brings substantial responsibility. I wish you all the best.
Thank you for your attention.
November 18, 2008
Dhulikhel
Nepal
* * * * *
No comments:
Post a Comment