Tribhuvan University of Nepal / त्रिभुवन विश्वविद्यालय

Tribhuvan University of Nepal
त्रिभुवन विश्वविद्यालय

Tribhuvan University is a public university located in Kirtipur, Kathmandu. Established in 1959, TU is the oldest university in Nepal. In terms of enrollment, it is the 12th largest university in the world. The college offers 1000 undergraduate and 500 postgraduate programs across a wide range of disciplines.[citation needed] Additionally, the institution has 30 constituent campuses and over 600 affiliated colleges across the country. Because it is government-funded, the tuition fees are less expensive than that of private (affiliated) college campuses.

Established on 25 June 1959, Tribhuvan University is the oldest and largest university in Nepal. The university was named after the late King Tribhuvan. In its early years, all the postgraduate classes were held at Tripureshwor Campus. The administrative office was also located in Tripureshwor. It was only in 1967, that the university was relocated to its main campus in Kirtipur – an ancient town about 5 km south-west of the city of Kathmandu. The university, which spreads over an area of 154.77 hectares, constitutes the Central Administrative Office and the Central Campus.

TU marked its golden jubilee in 2009 organizing programmes.

Since its inception, the state-owned university has expanded its programmes. There are five technical institutes and four general faculties. The university offers 115 courses for the technical proficiency certificate level. TU offers 1079 courses at Bachelor's level and 1000 courses at Master's level. It offers Ph.D. degrees in the technical institutes and faculties.

Tribhuvan University ran its programmes only through its constituent campuses before 1980. With the increasing number of students seeking higher education, it was not possible to accommodate all the students in the constituent campuses. This situation led to the establishment of colleges in the private sector because the constituent campuses alone could not meet the demand. From 1979 to 1980, TU started providing affiliation to private colleges. As of April 2016, 1,084 private and public colleges were affiliated with TU.

In the 2014–2015 academic session 4,05,341 students were enrolled in TU academic programmes. 1,48,141 (36.55%) students study in its 60 constituent campuses including 38 central departments, while 2,57,200 (63.45%) students study in 1,053 affiliated colleges.

TU has 7,841 teaching faculty and 7,413 non-teaching staff including the support staff in its constituent campuses. The number of total employees is 15,254.

Tribhuvan University is ranked as 800-1000 universities of the world as per the Times Higher Education World University Rankings in 2021, published by the Times Higher Education (THE) magazine. It is ranked among the 251-300 best universities of Asia. It is ranked at 6676 in the world and 2nd in the country as per the 4icu Organisation of University Ranking.