. Students of Tribhuvan University will now be able to get marks for their talent and contribution in extracurricular activities along with their academic certificates.

For the first time in the country, the university has introduced a policy to formally include extracurricular activities in academic credit.TAG_OPEN_span_16

Director of the Directorate of Student Welfare and Sports, Dr Dipendra Parajuli, said that the marks would be recorded in the academic certificate after evaluating the performance of students in social service, disaster management, sports, fine arts, science and technology, innovation, entrepreneurship and management.

He said, “Marks are not awarded merely because a student has submitted a certificate of outstanding performance in competitions, programs or opportunities inside or outside the university. Before that, all the activities of the students would be monitored, documented and verified through a central mechanism. ”

For this purpose, the coordinators of the National Service Plan, National Service Team, Vice-Chancellor Cup Sports, Fine Arts and Science, Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship Program at each campus level are required to submit an official record of student participation, hours involved and work performance every semester. The details will be attested and approved by the Directorate of Student Welfare and Sports of Tribhuvan University.

In addition, a centralized digital system will be developed to record all student activities, participation hours and credit scores received. The integrated dashboard based on Google Firm÷Google Sheet will clearly show the credit earned by the student, the comparative position between the students who have completed the required hours according to the program and the campuses. Only after the monitoring and certification is done centrally, the achievements made on the basis of the certificates submitted by the students will be included in the form of marks in their educational certificates.

Dr Parajuli said that this policy would not only increase the overall grade of the students but also help in identifying, developing and institutional encouragement of the hidden talents in various sectors. The students who perform well under the National Service Scheme, National Service Dal, Vice-Chancellor’s Cup Sports, Fine Arts and ITAE programs which have been included in the educational programs of the University will be directly benefited from this system.

Similarly, the policy has been put forward to appoint the students who score highest marks in each central department as teaching assistants or research assistants and provide opportunities to serve within the university. Likewise, arrangements have been made to provide special facilities to the students who have excelled in various disciplines outside the university.

Dr Parajuli said that the concept paper in this regard is in the preparation phase and the policy would be formally implemented once it is endorsed by the Academic Council. “For the first time in the country, we are including extracurricular activities in the academic curriculum,” he said.