The Higher Education Planning Division (HEPD) under the Department of Adult and Higher Education (DAHE), Ministry of Education, has developed a website and Tertiary Education Statistics System (TESS) with information on tertiary education institutes (TEIs) in Bhutan. These initiatives were officially launched today by the Hon'ble Secretary, Dasho Karma Yeshey.
The Hon'ble Secretary stated that such an initiative would help make it easier to take the development of tertiary education in Bhutan to the next level.
HEPD collects tertiary education data annually on TEIs, and makes compiled reports available to stakeholders and the general public in “State of Tertiary Education” reports. In order to provide comprehensive data on TEIs readily available to the public, the HEPD developed TESS, a database system with a web-based informational interface that the public can refer to for official information on the nation’s TEIs, which includes all tertiary diploma-granting institutes and degree colleges. The new system aims to make it easy to manage, retrieve, and update TEI data, as well as generate compiled reports on TEIs that would be useful for government decision makers and other stakeholders.
DAHE Director Kesang C. Dorji noted that “the new DAHE website will enable the department to communicate its activities better with the public, and also allow the public to more readily access DAHE services. Furthermore, TESS will help in planning and strategizing for the tertiary education needs of the country.”
For the Tertiary Education Board, as the oversight body of the tertiary education sector, the new system is expected to support evidence-based decisions to facilitate the development of a robust tertiary education system in the country. The development of the tertiary education database is not only in line with the aspirations of the Tertiary Education Policy 2010 (TEP 2010), among others, but also is consistent with the national drive towards digital knowledge sharing.
As the system deploys in the coming months, TEI stakeholders such as the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB), Khesar Gyalpo University of Medical Sciences of Bhutan (KGUMSB) and their constituent colleges, as well as Royal Institute of Management (RIM), Royal Thimphu College (RTC), Jigme Singye Wangchuk Law College (JSWLC), etc., will input updated data that will become readily accessible to the public. A stakeholders’ consultative meeting convened in November, 2016 welcomed the development of the system felt that it would enable better informed decision making by prospective students, their families, the general public, and policy makers. The system was developed with technical support from RTC.
