Bachelor of Public Administration | TU

Overview

The Bachelor of Public Administration is a relatively new offering from Tribhuvan University. The university began offering the program in 2070-71. That being said, it is not an entirely new concept in the Nepalese educational scape. Before the formal bachelor's program, the university had offered a one-year diploma. The program was later amended to become a full-fledged Diploma In Public Administration program. Alongside this, the university also offered a master's program in the same stream.
The program is, in some ways, comparable to the Bachelors in Business Administration. However, instead of focusing on business, the program focuses on creating manpower adept at serving the bureaucratic governance structure of the country and managing public service.
 

Program Structure

The Bachelor of Public Administration at TU is a 4-year program divided into eight semesters. Upon completion of the program, the graduate receives 120 credit hours and each semester accounts for 15 credits with 5 subjects. With basic math, it’s easy to deduce that each subject in the program is worth 3 credits. The credits awarded during the program can be further classified as follows:

The students will have to appear for board exams for 5 subjects before advancing to the next semester. Apart from studying for regular exams, the students will also have to partake in the internship program in their final semester and produce a report of their learnings and findings before the program concludes.

Objectives of Bachelor of Public Administration

The objectives of studying the Bachelor of Public Administration program of Tribhuvan University are:

1. Aims to develop knowledge and skills for middle level professionals who can function in diverse public organizations and look after local and regional needs.
2. To be able to work for a wide scale industry environment from state and local, federal, public and private organizations.
3. To demonstrate qualities of leadership, good governance, developer, and employee citizenship roles in public affairs managerial and administrative areas.
4. To carry out figurehead, specialist and informative managers and administrators working as public servants for the welfare of the nation and people.

Specializations

Much like BBA, TU’s BPA program also offers students the opportunity to specialize in certain domains of public service. Understandably, public service requires human resources from a variety of domains to serve a variety of functions. To properly account for the administration of these public resources, students of BPA can specialize in one of three broad streams. They are as discussed below.

Development Management

• DM 451: Project management
• DM 452: Cooperative Management
• DM 453: Tourism management
• DM 454: Social Development
• DM 455: Auditing in Nepal
• DM 456: Disaster Management

Human Resource Management

• HRM 461: Nepalese Personnel Administration
• HRM 462: Administrative Reform
• HRM 463: Human Resource Development
• HRM 464: Performance Management
• HRM 465: Total Quality Management
• HRM 466: Employer-employee relations

Local Governance

• LG 471: Local Planning
• LG 472: NGO Governance
• LG 473: Rural-Urban Partnership
• LG 474: Public-Private Partnership
• LG 475: Local Finance
• LG 476: Local Service Delivery

As made evident from the list above, the students will have to take six courses within their chosen specialization. The first specialization subject will be available to students in the sixth semester. They will study two more specialization subjects in the seventh semester. Finally, the three remaining courses are a part of the eighth semester.
 

Admission Requirements

The parallel with BBA doesn’t end with the course structure. Much like BBA, the BPA programs requires aspirants to sit down for the CMAT exam before they can formally enroll.
Then again, before the students even consider taking the CMAT Exam, they must demonstrate their aptitude for the program with their academic credentials. The students need to meet the following criteria to even consider applying for this program:

• Students should have passed 10+2 or equivalent examinations from a recognized academic institute with second division (securing 45% and above) or 1.8 CGPA to be eligible to enroll in this program.OR
• They should have successfully completed Higher secondary level in any discipline with at least second division from any institution recognized by TU to be eligible for applying BPA programme.

If the student meets these requirements, they can take the CMAT exam.

CMAT Exam
The students who wish to enroll into the BPA program are mandated by Tribhuvan University to pass the CMAT exam.

For those who don’t know already, the CMAT is a standardized test formulated and administered by the Faculty of Management at Tribhuvan University. The test is designed to test the aptitude of students in 4 distinct areas. They are:

• Verbal Ability
• Quantitative Ability
• Logical Reasoning
• General Awareness

Each of these subsets of the CMAT exam check the ability of students in specific domains of academic. For instance, the verbal ability segment checks if the student has good command over college-level written English. The quantitative ability segment is designed to assess the student’s ability to work with numbers. The Logical reasoning segment establishes the student’s ability to logically deduce information from the available cues. Finally, the general awareness section tests the student’s knowledge of the real world—milestone events and general knowledge.

Each of the segments is worth 25 points, and a student needs to score a total of 40 points to clear this exam. The points scored in the CMAT along with the student’s academic performance are considered by the college offering admission into the BPA program.
 

Career Prospects

The career prospects for graduates of the TU BPA program mostly center around government positions. Since the program is designed to teach the workings of the bureaucracy of Nepal, the students that graduate BPA have a nuanced understanding of the politics, policies and the inner workings of the government. Other than that, the courses that they study during the program share quite an overlap with the Lok Sewa Aayog (Public Service Commission) exam. Hence, it is easier for BPA graduates to clear the Lok Sewa Aayog exam and land a government job.

Apart from a job in the government sector, the BPA graduates can also look for jobs in the NGO and INGO sectors. Because they have been trained in public service, the not-for profit social agendas of NGOs would rightly align with the BPA graduates.

Setting aside the professional career altogether, the BPA graduates can further their academic careers in MPA, M Phil. in Public Administration or relevant a PhD program. They can then work towards a professional career in academia.
 

Apply now!

Get in touch with the expert counselors at Colleges Nepal today to figure out what specialization of TU’s BPA program is the best fit for you. At the same time, these experts will help you find the right institutions and get acquainted with the right people to help you advance in your academic pursuits!