Nitya Nanda Timsina Discourse of Higher Education Reform in Nepal – towards neo-liberalism Ph.D. dissertation Graduate School in Lifelong Learning Department of Psychology and Educational Studies, Roskilde University 2016 Nitya Nanda Timsina Discourse og Hig her Education Reform in Nepal – towards neo-liberalism A publication in the series: PhD dissertations from the Graduate School in Lifelong Learning, Roskilde University 1st Edition 2016 © The author, 2016 Cover: Vibeke Lihn Typeset: The author Print: Kopicentralen, Roskilde University, Denmark ISBN: 978-87-91387-94-4 Published by: Graduate School in Lifelong Learning Department of Psychology and Educational Studies Roskilde University Building 02 PO Box 260 DK-4000 Roskilde Denmark Tlf: + 45 46 74 26 39 Email: [email protected] http://www.ruc.dk/en/research/phd-programme/doctoral-schools-and-phd-pro- grammes-at-ru/doctoral-school-of-lifelong-learning-and-social-psychology-of-every- day-life/graduate-school-in-lifelong-learning/ All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Foreword This PhD dissertation is a res d ult of a thr ee year study in the Graduate School in Lifelong Learning at Roskilde University . The research perspective of lifelong learning comprises learning through the whole life course in formal education, everyday life, work life, family life, civil society, etc. Th us rese arch in lifelong learning calls for an interdisciplinary approach to learning as a subjecti ve activ- ity in a social context. The Graduate School in Lifelong Learning was established in 1999 with sup port from the Danish Research Academy. Since the PhD-programme was esta blished mor e than hundred students have achieved the PhD degree and presently aroun d 60 students are enrolled. The Graduate School has an annual enrolment of 10-15 new doctoral students. It is an international research train- ing programme. Academic everyday life comprises frequent visits by interna- tional guest professors and visits by foreign PhD students. Both students and supervisors are engaged in international research networks. Also, the Graduate School is part of a national network developing and coordinating educational activities for PhD students. The Graduate School draws upon theoretical and methodological inspira- tion from traditions within the arts and humanities as well as the social sciences. Graduate School training addresses issues traditionally ignored by discipline- nted orie research and professional knowledge. It particularly focuses on learn- ing as the subjective mediation of objective, societal and cultural processes. Research in Lifelong Learning encompasses a variety of subjects and is equally broad in the perspectives it takes. The topics of the PhD dissertations are often quite far from what is usually associated with pedagogy, but help to co-estab- lish an emerging critical and historically located important area of research. This often demands theoretical and methodological innovation. At the same time the programme aims to establish connections between existing traditions in pedagogical research and associated disciplines. Methodologically the gradu- ate school concentrates on qualitative methods and interpretive methodology. Within a wide scope each project may choose and adapt quite different meth- ods to the specific research problem. A PhD dissertation marks the end of an academic apprenticeship. It proves that the author has been “conducting an independent research project under supervision” as stated in the “Ministerial Order on the PhD Course of Study and on the PhD Degree”. It is the culmination of the process that is published here. PhD dissertations are however also part of the development and forming iii of new areas of research. PhD dissertations are necessary in the continuous creation of new knowledge and reading this dissertation assures that this pro- cess is well taken care of. This thesis – by Nitya Nanda Timsina – explores education in Nepal through discourse formation in the field of higher education. It is driven by a desire to analyze the contemporary desire of policy makers in Nepal, and their in- ternational development partners abroad, to transform the sector into a tool for economic growth and prosperity. Adopting a Foucauldia n/ disc ursive ap- proach, the thesis explores both the origins and effects of he t cu rrent dis- course; locating it as the latest ‘regime of truth’ about progress and well-being in Nepal, and the role that education has played in realizing the imaginary of progress. The thesis comprises a number of conceptual chapters that explore social theory and discourse as method, as well literature on higher education reform and development in Nepal. These chapters serve as the foundation for a series of empirical chapters that explore the enactment of higher education discourse across different university contexts, actors and subject positions. Ultimately, the thesis concludes that whilst neo-liberal reform in Nepal seeks to establish a totality or unitary form where all difference and diversity is reduced to singularity, the practice of reform leads to contested enactments that reflect different histories and contexts but also different visions of Nepal in relation to its unique social and political challenges but also in terms of its place as a nation in the so-called global knowledge economy. The thesis sug- gests that this local and context-specific diversity can be understood as being realized within a powerful meta-narrative that positions Nepal and its higher education policies, institutions and practitioners within an overall discourse of development that views Nepal as deficient and in need of radical change if progress is to follow. The thesis is grounded in theoretical concepts from the fields of devel- opment anthropology, education policy and philosophy (or more accurately epistemology). Principle amongst these is Foucauldian governmentality theory which is well-explained and placed in dialogue with Marxist-inspired ‘critical’ alternatives. By exploring the Foucauldian critique of Marxism and its applica- tion in the field of educational studies, the theory work then elaborates upon different notions of discourse, leading to the operation of a loose form of Fou caldian genealogical method with which to describe and organize policy hist ory in Nepal and identify a number of key policy moments. The aim here is to destabilize the dominant taken-for-grantedness of policy literature in Ne- iv pal that assumes a logical continuity of themes and priorities for reform. The identification of shifting priorities for reform – from nation or state-building, decentralization and local autonomy and, finally, individualization – make clear that policy truths in Nepal are both ideological and fabricated. The notion of subjectivity emerges as quite central here: subjects must be understood as the historically-contingent products of these policy regimes. v Abstract This PhD thesis examines how higher education has come to be understood and talked about in Nepal from the early 1950s to the present through the metanarrative of “development”. To be more precise, what is the discourse of higher education reform in Nepal? What is higher education? Who de- cides? How do actors in the field of practice enact it? These are some of the questions this PhD thesis attempts to answer. To answer these questions, the thesis deploys poststructuralism, mainly drawing on Michel Foucault’s discur- sive approach to social theory, as the lens with which to see the discourse and practice of higher education reform in Nepal. Accordingly, discourse is used as the overall conceptual frame for the study. It shows that the higher education reform doesn’t exist in itself as objective truth; it is tied to a form of power/ knowledge which produces it and thus structures our sense of reality to think, talk and enact it. Central to the thinking driving Nepalese higher education reform, with which this study is concerned, is international standards as the benchmark and the Western conception of economic “development” as its basic premise. The thesis questions this taken for granted assumptions about education as a tool for economic development. The thesis traces the emergence of this order of knowledge and thinking in Nepal to the adoption of modern education in the early 1950s sponsored by Nepal’s external development partners which began to intervene in Nepal in the name of “development” by presupposing that the Nepalese were in desparate need of external intervention. Since that time, education in Nepal has come to be understood increasingly in that imagina- tive international context and the country’s social realities as represented by a Western episteme and historicity. The thesis disturbs that dominant order of thinking higher education in Nepal to show how we have come to the present situation where “decentralized” and “autonomous” higher education is a politi- cal necessity. This study is situated in a large Nepalese public higher education sector known as Tribhuvan University and its 60 constituent campuses undergoing a major restructuring sponsored by the World Bank. Accordingly, the study is situated in that national flagship of higher education in Nepal. But the thesis problematized not this institute, but the problems and practice of knowledge