Samaya: What kind of university is KU?
Suresh Raj Sharma: In Nepal people make a distinction between government and private universities. KU is a public-private partnership. But KU is an independent institution and it belongs to the community. It is neither government nor private, and that is how its by laws are formulated.

Some professors seem to be unhappy.
We have 230 professors in management, education and medical, sciences. The professors who are unhappy are from the science section and they are different. So one department's problems can't be put together with other departments. And even within the science department there is no unanimity about the demands. There can be some issues about procedures, qualifications, but they haven't been able to point out where there has been a violation of rules. We are ready to correct things if there are problems.

Why is it a problem allowing the teachers to unionise?
According to the rules, I can't allow a union. We didn't make these rules, the ones who made the rules have to change them. They can only criticize us if we go against the rules. If they don't take classes, it will affect the semester calendar, and the students may leave. The faculty and students have representatives in the university's supreme body, they could easily have raised it there.

So there are some demands that are valid.
We can't keep unqualified people. But if 10-12 people use their dissatisfaction to influence 225 others... In 15 years we have got this far, if you want quality you have to have stick to some principles. If something is not suitable, you can't suddenly say it is terrible. The guardians and students must also have a say, but they haven't complained to us. Some want promotions, but they may not be qualified. If you didn't get a position it's because it depended on your qualifications.

How is this going to be resolved?
There will be obstacles when you try to do something good. If we let the obstacles affect us, then nothing good will get done. We have to solve them. If we didn't have the determination we wouldn't have started on this work. Our wish is not to let anything spoil the work we are doing here. I have a year-and-a-half left here, I don't have to stay till the end of my tenure. But I will try to resolve the problem, I won't quit. We must save KU.