Simply visualize Tribhuvan University at Kirtipur, Kathmandu, during the dry season with heaps of dead leaves on the ground. And the answer to this problem is straightforward for the university administration: either burn the leaves till the smoke chokes the air or ignore them until they dissolve into soil. However, engineering students in Mumbai, across the border, saw dry leaf debris as a solution rather than garbage, a substitute for LPG provided by the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay with a unique biomass gasification technique, which turns dry leaf waste into clean cooking fuel.

However, during this current energy crisis due to the Middle East crisis, has any Nepali university come up with a scalable alternative fuel solution? Why do our university graduates expect the government to find solutions to each and every problem for all the time? The government can cut taxes and present austerity measures, but it is also the responsibility of public universities in Nepal to come up with alternative solutions to overcome this energy crisis.

Why can’t our university graduates think outside the box and find reliable, localized, and sustainable solutions to this energy crisis? The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Bombay has patented biomass gasification technology that transforms dry leaf waste into cooking fuel as an alternative to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). However, the university system in Nepal remains stagnant, devoid of any actionable outcomes for this energy crisis, lost within its procedural labyrinths of problem-discussing rather than problem-solving.

Our universities are trapped in a theater of academia. Endless lectures, theoretical debates, bogus publications for promotions, and publicity seminars with tea, biscuits, and lunch boxes but with no applicable prototype. Our students can articulate why the leaf waste exists; surely, it’s due to administrative, systemic, and structural failures, but they don’t know what to do about it themselves. The lack of problem-solving skills among our graduates to envision, analyze, and articulate practical, scalable, and sustainable solutions to emerging issues in business, industries, markets, and society has indeed undermined the socio-economic development of Nepal through entrepreneurship, start-up ecosystems, and technological innovations.

Difference between Patents and PowerPoints

Now, let’s look at the hard numbers. Chandigarh University in India currently holds 5,519 patents and has produced over 20,000 research publications. Whether you agree or disagree with entrepreneurial/industrial impact or the applicable quality associated with these patents, the intention of the institution is clear.

Innovation is a measurable output, and the volume reflects a commitment to address real-world problems through research and innovation. In contrast, the entire Nepali university system still struggles to file even a single-digit patent in a year.

Surely, we produce brilliant theorists who can apply John Maynard Keynes, Max Weber, Milton Friedman, and Karl Marx for analyzing and explaining our current socio-political and economic scenario but cannot find simple solutions to the looming crisis associated with agricultural issues, job market instability, economic slowdown, and industrial stagnation in Nepal. Our higher education system still prioritizes description over action.

Moreover, universities in Nepal operate as ivory towers utterly disconnected from the issues that affect society in its everyday struggles. As the society expects university graduates in Nepal to come up with a cheap, low-maintenance gasifier, these outcomes don’t exist because the system does not ask for these solutions. Hence, the higher education system in Nepal has progressively lost its relevance to society at large, and the trend of student decline, drop-out, and preference for foreign universities continues.

The Solow Model: Why Lectures Won’t Grow the Economy

As Nepal, under the leadership of Balendra Shah, strives for economic growth, the current government cannot rely solely on public policies, administrative efficiencies, and digital governance models for the socio-economic transformation of the nation. To understand why good public governance is not enough for the economic growth of the nation, here we need to revisit the Solow growth model. According to the Solow Growth Model, developed by an American economist Robert Solow, long-term economic growth of any nation results from capital accumulation, labor, and technological progress. Basically, this theory indicates that an economy cannot grow just by adding buildings, computers, or having a bulk of graduates in a convocation ceremony.

A nation falls into a cycle of job market stagnation, economic stalemate and industrial downturn if it lacks a higher education framework that encourages creativity, innovative behavior, and problem-solving skills. Nepal can access grants and loans and invest capital in public companies, roads, bridges, laptops, broadband, and digital governance; yet, in the absence of an innovation ecosystem and technological advancement, the country only obtains a lower per capita return.

What about upcoming disasters?

Nepal can’t achieve economic growth solely through good governance, anti-corruption drives, or administrative efficiency. As Solow model indicates, without a continuous stream of technological progress, the economy will stagnate. If IIT Bombay can turn dead leaves into fuel, the question remains, why can’t a university in Biratnagar, Birendranagar, or Pokhara try to turn plastic waste into paving tiles at latest? Besides, stakeholders of higher education in Nepal need to realize that the economic growth of Nepal depends not only on how many students we enroll in our university system but also on how many problems these students solve through social engagements and industrial collaborations.

The lack of problem-solving skills and innovative behavior within the Nepali university system has been a disaster. We need a radical shift. When the next crisis hits, a fertilizer shortage, a construction material crisis, or a water purification emergency, will universities in Nepal have a prototype or patent ready? Or they will hold another seminar or conference on this issue with the support from University Grant Commission or some donor agency. Let’s see.

(Gaurav Ojha is a writer, researcher, and educator at different educational institutions.)