Plural histories of higher education

While the number of student departures is staggering, the fact of their leaving itself is nothing new.

Our knowledge of the histories of higher education in Nepal is rather limited. This history usually starts by noting that Prime Minister Chandra Shamsher Rana started Tri-Chandra College (known simply as TC) in 1918. Then it jumps to note that Tribhuvan University (TU) was established in Kathmandu in 1959 as the country’s first university and it remained the only university in Nepal until 1986 when Nepal (then Mahendra) Sanskrit University was founded. This narrative then notes that in the early 1990s, Nepal became a multi-university country by establishing several new universities. This history—please excuse my skeletal rendition—deserves a serious re-visit and plural histories of higher education need to be written. For doing so, at least two perspectives are of importance.