Government of Nepal and World Bank Sign $60 Million Agreement to Improve Nepal’s Higher Education Sector

The Government of Nepal and the World Bank signed a $60 million financing agreement for the Nurturing Excellence in Higher Education Program today to improve the quality of Nepal’s higher education, scale up online learning, and expand access to academic institutions for underprivileged and vulnerable students.

 

The Nurturing Excellence in Higher Education Program builds on Nepal’s successful higher education projects supported through result-based financing. It will help the Government of Nepal align its higher education sector with labor market needs, boost collaborative research and entrepreneurship, improve governance, and access to quality higher education, especially for disadvantaged students. The COVID-19 pandemic has created strong incentives to expand online platforms and blended learning, which the program will help scale up across Nepal’s universities.

The program will also expand targeted scholarships to help disadvantaged students pursue labor market-driven academic programs and support equity grants to higher education institutions in needy and disaster-affected areas in Nepal.