KU sees 15 percent growth in student admissions

Kavre, Dhulikhel
Kathmandu University, Nepal’s premier non-profit university, has seen a 15-percent growth in student admissions in the ongoing 2023-24 academic year. The university has said the total admission rate this year stands at 87 percent of its intake capacity of the academic year 2023-24.
The student admissions at the university in the academic year 2022-23 was 72 percent; it was 70 percent the year earlier.
The university has seen a jump in student admission rate this year in all of its seven schools. As compared to 2022-23, Arts has seen a 19 percent growth; Education, 34 percent; Engineering, 13 percent; Law, 11 percent; Management, 4 percent; Medical Sciences, 6 percent; and Science, 28 percent.
The university’s admissions capacity has increased from 5,898 students in the previous academic year to 6,186 this year.
The latest figures indicate a bounce-back by the university, which saw student admission rates hover around the 70 percent mark for two consecutive years. The university’s growth has come as positive news amid concerns about dwindling student numbers in universities across Nepal. With almost 100,000 students leaving Nepal each year in recent times, universities have had to withhold their academic programmes.
Professor Dr Bhola Thapa, Vice-Chancellor of the university, said the jump in student admissions was the result of recent efforts by the various departments of the university to retain students in Nepal. “We’ve reached out to students with new programmes and initiatives, and convinced them about the international quality and recognition of our education.”
Thapa further added that the university had launched several new programmes to cater to the demands of the students and to make the university truly international.
The university has started 15 new academic programmes in the ongoing academic year. These include undergraduate courses in Craft and Design, Yogic Science and Wellbeing, Psychology, Mining Engineering, Bioinformatics, and Aviation Management. The postgraduate programmes that began this academic year include Development Studies-International, Indigenous Education and Development; Writing and Literacy Studies; Education in School Counseling, Health Informatics, Energy and Infrastructure Law, Executive MBA-International, and Economics.
“Kathmandu University’s growth this academic year shows we can retain students within Nepal through a slew of reforms in admissions and teaching systems. Since our competition is now global rather than national, we have tailored our publicity strategies accordingly,” Thapa said.
In addition, the university has restructured its courses in line with the requirements of dual degrees and international collaboration. According to Thapa, the university has also made major achievements towards internationalization this academic year with the launch of new academic programmes abroad. These include a joint MTech programme in Energy Systems with the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, a Bachelor in Yogic Science and Well Being programme in collaboration with Sri Visweswara Yoga Research Institute, Tirupati, India; a Bachelor of Information Technology programme in collaboration with Crown Institute of Higher Education, Australia; and a Buddhist Studies programme in collaboration with Thrangu Vajrayana Buddhist Center, Hong Kong.
The university has over 18,000 students throughout the university system, including in its constituent and affiliated campuses. A total of 43,123 students have graduated from the university so far.
Notably, several schools of the university have higher admission rates of female students than male. The School of Law has the highest admissions rate of female students, at 71 percent. Other schools that have higher admissions rates of female students are Arts (55 percent), Management (53 percent), and Medical Sciences (54 percent). The overall ratio of male to female students is 51 percent to 49 percent.