E-governance practice in Tribhuvan University, Nepal

Abstract

University governance through e-governance practice by using ICT tools has played a vitarole to manage and deliver public services effectively and efficiently at university. This study attempts to identify the ICT-based e-governance practices and the capacity development of service delivery in TU and assess the role of e-governance for governance reform in service delivery. The mixed method approach has been applied to collect the data from primary sources and document review to collect secondary data in this study. The survey has been conducted with 277 participants for the quantitative data collection. Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) are taken with nine key administrative authorities and ICT expert. Similarly, Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) are conducted with three major stakeholders' organizations TUTA, TUEA and FSU to triangulate the information collected from survey and KIIs. Thefinding reveals that a dozen of ICT-based e-governance tools have been used for service delivery in different areas of services in TU. The perception of e-governance in the area of administration, finance, library and examination is positively correlated with the role of e-governance for governance reform in service delivery in terms of gender and educational attainment of the employees. The ITIC has been established, and the major policy of IT and digitalization strategicplan have been developed for establishing infrastructure of e-governance in the university. The budget for infrastructure of e-governance and capacity development of human resources has been regularly allocated from the university's Senate yearly and the capacity development trainings areregularly being conducted by the university. The office management system using e-governance practice has been found in dual nature of record keeping in both computerized and manually filling system. E-governance practices play a vital role to change the existing system of university service delivery and effectively reduce corruption and ensure accountability and transparency for academic integrity. Digital platforms are used for digital communication using ICTs for service delivery. The lack of quality software, trained technical human resources, clearly stated policy and utilization of existing infrastructures are the main challenges in the implication of e-governance for service delivery.

Key words: Digitalization, e-governance, ICT infrastructure, service delivery, university governance,