Structural ills of our universities

It is quite common for university management offices to be padlocked for months.

Those of us who have argued that Nepal needs more universities (my column, January 6) are often asked why we could simply not reform the existing universities and end up with a few “well-managed” ones that can take care of the country’s needs for higher education. I acknowledge that this is a genuine question. However, the structural problems that have made most of Nepal’s existing universities ill are so enormous, it will require a miracle to solve them. What are those main problems and how might the proposed new institutions avoid them?