Review of current progress and suggestions for further development of the Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur, Nepal

Special evaluation covers the period 1975-6/84 and is based on document review, observation, and interviews with IAAS personnel. IAAS is at a critical juncture in its development, with most basic components relatively well established; additional demands will now be placed on it for improvements in quality. Despite some progress in curriculum, deficiencies noted 2 years ago remain: the curriculum is relatively fluid, extremely ambitious, demanding of students, and lacking in practical training. Other specific IAAS shortcomings include: an absence of reliable data on manpower needs and employment of graduates; such poor recordkeeping that not even the size of the student body (estimated at 611) can be determined with certainty; inability to project future enrollments; and an urgent need for more English language training. To date, more attention has been given to IAAS facilities than to programs; this emphasis should be reversed. During the next decade, major focus should be on: (1) improving administrative capability and functioning; and (2) establishing a balanced curriculum and teaching program plus viable research and outreach programs in appropriate facilities. Faculty members should put more emphasis on improving IAAS and less on their personal status; a faculty evaluation system should be implemented. Development of the experimental farm, long overdue, should also be given high priority. Additional, lower priority, needs are, in order of importance: further M.S. and Ph.D. training for staff; TA in administration, agricultural engineering, animal science, and experimental farm operations; and construction and upgrading of student housing, offices, research laboratories, and staff housing. Despite large investments by donors in training and research, and countless recommendations by consultants for reforms, there has been little evidence of any effort to undertake these reforms. What is needed at IAAS is not necessarily an influx of more resources, more training, or more or less TA, but establishment of an operating principle whereby resource inputs become contingent on implementing some of these recommendations.