Ministry of Commerce And Supplies - Enhanced Integrated ...

N T I S2010Box 2.2. Medical Colleges in Nepal: Who trades what with whom?When we look at trade in education services in Nepal, then a major part of that story is the story of the medical colleges that are set up by Indiancolleges, usually in collaboration with Nepalese universities. From a trade perspective, India exports education services to Nepal throughcommercial presence (mode 3), but mainly to Indian students in Nepal. Some of the students, in the case of Manipal College in Pokhara around40 per cent, are Nepalese, but a large share of them receives tuition waivers. Almost all graduates from these schools--Nepalese, Indian, andothers--leave Nepal soon after graduation and seek to get recognition for their medical degrees in India and elsewhere. The total number ofstudents at 14 medical colleges for which numbers could be obtained is as follows: 1,004 Nepalese students, 1,074 Indian students, and 253students from third countries.Attached to these colleges are teaching hospitals, in which mainly Nepalese patients receive treatment at low costs. 121 These colleges rely ontuition fees of foreign students and, according to respondents, they are in Nepal for mainly two reasons: limitations in the Indian medical schoolsystem and the pleasant climate, with the fi rst one being the main reason. 122The Medical Council of India regulates recognition of medical degrees in India. There is no automatic recognition of the degrees obtained inNepal. 123 Available seats in Indian schools are well below demand, which drives students to foreign institutions, but this business model highlydepends on whether they stand a chance to get their degrees recognized in India and how much more diffi cult it is to get a recognized degreein a private or public school in India itself. There is a debate on possible reforms of India’s medical education system, which could also havelarge effects on the business model of medical schools in Nepal. 124Quality of Education: The quality of an education system is difficult to assess or to compare with othercountries and we do not attempt to do that here. A large number of global ‘university rankings’ exist, but theyusually do not include any Nepalese institution. Respondents in Nepal rank the quality of engineering andmedical education--the two main areas for foreign students at the moment--as high. TU’s engineering school,IoE, is rated fourth in Asia, according to an IoE respondent. However, it seems clear that the quality of theeducation system is not the main driver for the majority of foreign students to come to Nepal. Informationobtained from respondents and results from a survey by SAWTEE (2008) show that most foreigners chooseNepal because of limited availability of seats in their home country (mainly India), rather than because of asuperior education system. Most student respondents in the SAWTEE survey are, however, relatively satisfiedwith the quality of education that they receive in Nepal.Education Costs: Living costs are low in Nepal and lower than in many places in India. According to the SAWTEEsurvey, and confirmed by respondents in the education sector, lower living costs are one, though not the mainfactor for Indian students to study in Nepal. Tuition fees are another main factor of education costs, but verydifficult to compare across institutions and countries.Business Environment: As in all sectors, the unstable political situation was raised by respondents as beinga major obstacle for the sector. More specific about the education sector, the SAWTEE survey found thatrespondents were satisfied with investment regulations for schools with foreign affiliation and that visaregulations for foreign students are simple. The education tax (applied to private colleges) was mentioned byseveral respondents as an impediment, but it has already been lowered from 5 per cent to 1 per cent.Index 4: Socio-economic ImpactCurrent Employment and Job-Creation Prospect: The employment range is between 30 in the InternationalLanguage Campus to 1,000 in Nepalgunj Medical College. It is 351 in Maharajgunj Campus, 500 in NepalMedical College and 350 in the IoE, but we have no reliable figures how many of these jobs are related to121Nepal Medical College Teaching Hospital provides free services, including food, medicine, operation and investigation for 100 beds out of its700 beds. The college also provides 10 per cent free scholarship to government-nominated medical students from the Ministry of Education.122A similar type of medical schools exists in several Caribbean island nations, such as Dominica and Grenada. These schools mainly cater forstudents from the USA, who can get their degrees recognized in the USA, but with easier accession to schools and lower tuition and living costs.The natural environment is arguably an additional advantage. Local students and patients also profit from these institutions.123See http://www.mciindia.org/KNOW/rules/elig_cert.htm for more recent information on recognition issues.124See for example http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/downloads/documents/wg_med.pdf .112NEPAL TRADE INTEGRATION STRATEGY 2010BACKGROUND REPORT