समाचारहरु NEWS

Open University of Nepal Workshop, held at Carleton University

Published by Hamrosamaj on August 16, 2010

Open University of Nepal Workshop, held at Carleton University

Ottawa on August 13, 2010.

Press Release

A workshop on Open University of Nepal (OUN) initiative was organized by NRNA and Canada Foundation for Nepal (CFFN) as a follow up to the meeting held in Houston in May 2010. Nepal’s ambassador to Canada, Dr. Bhojraj Ghimire was the chief guest of the program which was attended by some 30 participants including some leading professionals and academicians from Canada and the USA.

The Ottawa workshop consisted of two sessions.

The morning session was moderated by Dr. Govind Dahal, and consisted of presentations and key note speeches. The workshop started with welcome address by Dr. Pramod Dhakal, the leader of the NRNA/CFFN initiative team of OUN. He highlighted the various reasons for the need of an open university in Nepal. He mentioned about the problem of drop outs in the school, migration of non-skilled people from Nepal to foreign countries where they ended up working in minimal salary. He opined that an OUN could play to make a significant difference in the lives of these people.

Dr. Drona Rasali, another member of the OUN initiative team presented the academic aspect of proposed university. He addressed the proposed university’s mission statement, the proposed initial curricula, and the possible disciplines of the courses that could be offered. He also proposed that the Lumbini-Muktinath corridor could be the initial geographic area to be covered by OUN, and later on it can expand to cover the whole country.

Dr. Ambika Adhikari, another member of OUN initiative team focused on a pre-business plan of the OUN. He explained who would be the possible stakeholders of this university, what would be the financial resources, who are the main target groups. He also shared some ideas on sustainability and operational aspects of the university. He reiterated that the OUN was the initiative of GoN, and now Nepali Diaspora has offered to assist the Government of Nepal to realize this plan.

Next speaker was a long time supporter of Nepal, a former long time Canadian MP David Kilgour, who is an advisor to CFFN. He mentioned that he was thrilled to learn the thoughts, initiatives and discussion conducted by the proponent team for this university. He assured his full support for this good cause.

Dr. Mohamed Ally, Professor at Athabasca University, a leading Open University in Canada, shared some of the success stories from Athabasca He reiterated a strong support of Athabasca University for the proposed OUN. With all the information he has gathered and with the discussion with the OUN initiative team, he was confident that this OUN would be a success.

Dr. Bidya Ranjit, a well known women leader in the USA showed her strong support on this initiative and also said that she was ready to link her organization to this new initiative.

The chief guest of the program Dr. Bhoj Raj Ghimire, Nepali Ambassador to Canada stated that the Nepali Government initiated the Open University legislation in early 2000, but this initiative could not materialize. He expressed his full support for this proposal in his personal capacity and added that he would recommend that a formal MOU signed by GoN with NRNA and CFFN. He recommended several measures to make it a success.

The afternoon session was a moderated discussion and was guided by Dr. Barbara Spronk, a long time tutor of University of Athabasca. She organized the discussion and input under several headings.

Discussion included the topics related to stakeholders, and the role of the government in OUN. Participants opined that the main target group initially could be school teachers in rural area, the NGO local staff, may be ex-army servicemen and policemen. Other points were related to fund raising, tuition, volunteer, partnership with local entrepreneurs. Participants recommended having a liaison team in Nepal which could support the establishment phase of OUN.

The workshop concluded by agreeing that the OUN initiative is a noble one, and that a wide support from the Diaspora members can help realize its objectives. Further, all agreed that funding should be sought from different sources, including international financing agencies, government of Nepal, Diaspora members and individual supporters.

Contact: Dr. Pramod Dhakal

E-mail: pdhakal@gmail.c