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Bhutan Education |
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Bhutan Education |
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| Royal
University optimistic despite many challenges |
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The Royal University of Bhutan
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| The The Royal University of Bhutan was founded2003. The national university system in Bhutan includes 10 member colleges: |
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College of Science and Technology
Gaeddu College of Business Studies
Samtse College of Education
Paro College of Education
Jigme Namgyel Polytechnic
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College of Natural Resources
Sherubtse College
Institute of Language and Culture Studies
National Institute of Traditional Medicine
Royal Institute of Health Sciences |
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| The Royal University of Bhutan |
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External
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Nearly
two years after its launch, the Royal University of Bhutan is looking
ahead with much ambition and optimism but many challenges stand in its
way.
Established
in June 2003, the university comprises of nine tertiary institutes
scattered across the country and coordinated by an office in Thimphu. These
institutes offer programmes from liberal arts, business and management
to science and technological studies.
A
lot has been achieved since. According to the university's vice chancellor,
Dasho Zangley Dukpa, the university has set the environment for it to be
able to confer the degree and other awards. It has also set the atmosphere
to develop new and existing academic programmes.
Regulations
and procedures, examination and evaluation systems, quality assurance system
and the level of standard of the programmes, and others, in line with international
practices, have been drawn and are ready for implementation, Dasho Zangley
Dukpa said.
The
university has also identified several academic programmes. Most of it
will be the programmes offered by its institutes although they will be
modified and developed according to the university's standards. Some of
it will include law, accountancy, software system design, architecture,
engineering, environment science, and medicine. Others will include agriculture,
design, music and film.
Dasho
Zangley said that given Bhutan's heavy reliance on tourism and hydropower,
"niche area" programmes like hospitality and hotel management, and
natural resource management, will be geared towards developing the two
economies.
The
university will also introduce, at least, two degree programmes on Bhutan
and Himalayan culture, contents of which will include Sanskrit,
Buddhism and Buddhist anthropology. The present Institute for Language
and Culture Studies, which will be shifted from Semtokha in Thimphu
to Takthsi in Trongsa, will be the premier institute for such programmes.
Professionals
from reputed universities outside the country are being invited to review
and develop the royal university's curriculum. Works on programmes for
PhD, MPhil, MA, MSc, MBA are also underway.
"The
royal university's programmes will reflect the relevance and needs of Bhutan,
its society and its culture," Dasho Zangley said.
The
tertiary institutes are currently submitting their programmes for validation
by the university. With some modifications most of the submitted programmes
would be validated by 2007, after which the university will start conferring
awards, said the university's director of academic affairs, Yangka. Once
validated the programmes will belong to the royal university.
Yangka
said that most tertiary institutions under the university were in some
way or the other affiliated to other universities and, from where awards
were granted. Such an arrangement, although it helped gain confidence and
standards, dictated study programmes that were largely driven by the customs
and needs of an educational system that was not Bhutan's.
The
university has also big plans. Some of it includes turning the university
into an information and capacity building center of the government and
also into a world reputed seat of learning and research.
The
university plans to maintain, at all times, an ambitious 10 percent of
all the country's 18 year olds in its campus, way higher than in the South
Asia. The university also aims to double the number of students in its
campus from 3,500, at present, to 7,000 by 2012.
"Our
aim is to turn the royal university into a center of excellence in tertiary
education," Dasho Zangley said.
| Challenges
to overcome |
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To
have all the policies and procedures in place, and envisioning, is one
thing implementing them is another Dasho Zangley said.
One
of the biggest challenges is the absence of qualified faculty. The university
has 318 teachers including 74 foreigners. Of that two Bhutanese
have PhD and 127 have Masters degree. Foreigners with PhD number
14 and with Masters 55. Most of them are placed in Sherubtse College.
But they were not enough given the increasing number of students and demand
for good education, said Yangka.
Yangka
said that most tertiary institutes were unable to find the required number
of qualified teachers. The institutes also lacked teachers with diverse
qualifications and capabilities. Teachers in information technology and
computers were few and far between and they were difficult to look for,
said Yangka. Although foreign teachers, who were paid much higher than
the Bhutanese, came under projects like the Colombo Plan, most did
not stay for too long.
Most
Bhutanese teachers also lacked specialisation in a particular subject.
"How
do we attract the brightest and best, Bhutanese and non-Bhutanese, people
to teaching in tertiary education in Bhutan?" Dasho Zangley said.
The
other challenge is the expansion of institute infrastructure and facilities
which are at present insufficient to accommodate the growing number of
Bhutanese students seeking tertiary education in Bhutan.
"In
2005 the number of Class XII students who want to join the royal university
is huge but we cannot accommodate them, as much as we want to, because
institutes do not have enough spaces- in the class room and in hostels,"
Yangka said.
Another
challenge is the flawed information system. Yangka said that most institutes
used course reference materials dating as far back as the 1960s. Other
universities would be looking at least the 2003 materials, he said. The
style of teaching and learning of rote and note based also needed a complete
changeover.
"A
student should be able to apply the knowledge and skills they learn in
their class rooms to their practical life's situations and not just in
the exams," Yangka said.
ICT
connectivity is another challenge. The royal university is dictated by
the dispersion of campuses of the university which are spread around the
country and ICT was recognised as the main means of communication between
the institutes and the university office. And that required money.
At
the moment the university, though an autonomous body, is funded by the
government.
But
the university wants to fund itself in the future. The government has,
for a start, given the university the green signal to receive gifts and
endowments as an alternative means for funding. The university will also
attract paying international students to study in its campus in the future.
Yangka
said that its Royal Bhutan Institute of Technology at Kharbandi was already earning money by offering short courses and training in AutoCAD
for engineers and architects from private firms and government.
However,
Yangka said, Bhutanese students will receive free tertiary education as
long as the government wanted.
Dasho
Zangley said that the university was also working on the service condition
of its faculty members to delink them from the civil service.
| Recognition
worldwide
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The
royal university will not seek any formal affiliation for it to be recognised,
said Yangka.
"We
want to develop the university into an autonomous university," he said.
The
university will also not seek any formal academic accreditation either,
like the Sherubtse college where it's academic accreditation is obtained
from the University of Delhi. Such arrangement did not allow the university
to be self-reliant, Yangka said.
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| The
new curriculum was jointly developed by relevant officials from the Bhutan
Board of Education, Education Monitoring Support Service Division, Education
Media Service, Canadian Cooperation Office, CASPD, SSEB and teachers and
lecturers from schools and Sherubtse College including two professors from
the University of New Brunswick, Canada. |
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"We
will, however, follow a path whereby we get the benefit of a good university's
assurance that our programmes are as good as theirs," Yangka said.
Yangka
said that in the end the awards conferred by the royal university would
be recognised because its courses and programmes will be of international
standard and quality.
The
quality of the university's programme is assured through regular monitoring,
reviews and examination system, said Dasho Zangley.
"The
system will ensure that the quality of our programmes and courses are at
par with any other programmes in any other universities," Dasho Zangley
said. Once quality was ensured recognition was taken care of, he said.
Recognition
will also be worked through networking of select universities through the
exchange of faculty members and programmes. The university will also seek
membership of association of recognised universities.
| Contributed
by Kinley Wangmo,KUENSEL, Bhutan's National Newspaper, 2005 |
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