Nepalese Journal of Public Affairs

Effectiveness of MPhil in Public Administration Programme

Buddhi Man Shrestha — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The philosophical debate regarding the nature and scope of university education basically whether it is responsible to impart universal knowledge concentrating mainly in dissemination of knowledge than advancement of knowledge has been feathered out replacing by a significant role to be played by university for invention and innovation. In this context MPhil in public administration education program has been conducted by CDPA, TU with a view to advance the knowledge pertaining to public administration, policy and governance. It pays triggered attention to make students being able to conduct research activity independently in concerned areas which could contribute to heighten their competencies to compete in both global and Nepalese contexts. It seems ardent to know to usefulness of the context and content of the courses and enhancing the capacity of students in their work life situation. The objective of this paper is to explain the usefulness of the course content and institutional capacity of CDPA for conducting MPhil in public administration program effectively. For this, two hypotheses were constructed: usefulness of the course and contents; and institutional capacity of CDPA helps to enhance effectiveness of MPhil program. The mixed method of sequential explanatory strategy was adopted to conduct this research. Both the hypothesis has been tested based on chi square test in goodness of fit. The relationship between research variables is found to be positive. It is concluded that course and contents should be updated periodically and institutional capacity should be further strengthened. Thus, MPhil in public administration discipline has become vital for solving the problems of concerned areas.

The Review of Affirmative Action for the Inclusive Civil Service of Nepal

Baburam Bhul — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This article examines the executing effects of affirmative action for the inclusive civil service of Nepal. Affirmative action is part of a broader social inclusion agenda introduced after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed in 2006. The reservation system as a tool of affirmative action has been performing its role, which has been adopted since 2007, after the second amendment of the Civil Service Act, 1993. This article employed the descriptive research design based on the systematic review of secondary data for the analysis. In a nation like Nepal, it can be challenging to implement affirmative action successfully since it includes challenging redistributive behaviors and welfare societal norms as well as centuries-old discrimination that is reinforcing every day. The construction of target groups in affirmative action based on social categories as indicators of discrimination leads to debate regarding its good intentions. Two unintended implications arise from this: firstly, affirmative action can foster inter-group differences and polarization between targeted and non-targeted groups, potentially fueling discrimination and resentment. Secondly, there is a risk of overlooking inequalities within social groups, as observed in Nepal's civil service positions, where reserved spots may be filled by relatively well-off families, neglecting economically disadvantaged individuals. These unintended consequences highlight the complexity of affirmative action and emphasize the need for careful consideration and evaluation to address potential drawbacks and ensure fairness and inclusivity.

Perception of Academicians towards Quality of Public Service Marketing in Pokhara

Amin Palikhe — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study mainly focuses on understanding user perception and experiences towards quality of public service marketing on delivery by using the five service delivery dimensions: accessibility, cost, time, barrier and behavior. The research methodology comprises descriptive research design followed by stratified simple random sampling for permanent academic faculty members under multi stage sampling from one constitute and four affiliated college. The primary sources of data were collected through semi structure questionnaire method. Reliability and validity were tested. The study reveals that overall qualities of public service delivery dimension are moderate. The academicians were satisfied with the quality of public service delivery in Pokhara but perception was not as expected. However, the qualitative result depicted that there were major challenges in service delivery such as problem from staff, risk after payment of fees and extra efforts for completing lengthy service. In addition, environmental situation, employees’ attitude, intermediaries, and Afno Manche (known person), salary level and political interventions cause changes in behavior during public service delivery. So, public service institutions should give due attention to such issues to improve quality of service delivery. Even though there is no specific model to measure the quality of public service delivery in Nepalese context therefore, a CAT-Behavior model is recommended for measuring the quality of public service delivery in Nepalese context and it could be beneficial from different perspective.

Agglomeration in Tourism Governance and Community Based Tourism in Nepal: An Ethnographic Reflection from Panauti Historical Area

Sahadev Gautam — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Etymologically, tourism is an industry and part of recreation and the way for sustainable resource management at the local level through community participation. Community-based tourism in Nepal is famously known as homestay tourism. It is an agglomeration of much authentic cultural and ecological richness within diversity to the tourist’s experience at the exact moment to the local’s participation and empowerment. Homestay is a very potential rural and historical site-based tourism enterprise. Tourism governance is not isolated discourse; it has many tangible and intangible transactions. It has been a positive backbone for the growth of environmental tourism around the globe by utilizing and empowering the local community. The primary data was collected for my research work for my MPhil thesis. The article aims to assess the socioeconomic, cultural, and participation contribution of community-based tourism in Nepal, based on the ethnographic narration analysis design. Moreover, community-based tourism is not an isolated subject so tourism is highly accountable to income elasticity and local empowerment with local resource marketing and distribution. Findings show that homestays should have an eco-friendly infrastructure for sustainable resource mobilization and homestay as community-based tourism is community lead activities for the sake of empowerment of the local, especially women.

Students’ Satisfaction on Service Quality at Prithvi Narayan Multiple Campus of Tribhuvan University in Nepal

Santosh Adhikari — Sun, 31 Dec 2023 00:00:00 +0000

This study examines the students’ satisfaction on service quality of PNC. The main objective of the study is to analyze the major influencing factors of academic aspect of service quality, to measure the relationship of academic aspect of service quality with students’ satisfaction and to analyze the impact of academic aspects on students’ satisfaction on service quality. Philosophical foundation of this research is based on positivist research paradigm. Based on the philosophical foundation, this research has used descriptive and analytical research design. Using multi-phase sampling technique, this study reveals major influencing factor of academic aspect of service quality is quality of lecturers. The overall students’ satisfaction towards service quality provided by PNC is more than average. The learning environment of academic aspect has more influence in students’ satisfaction. Overall, there is high degree of positive correlation between academic aspect of service quality and students’ satisfaction. For academic aspect of service quality, only learning environment shows a statistically significant impact on students’ satisfaction. This study shows that academic aspects of service quality have positive impact on students’ satisfaction.