About the Open University of Nepal Initiative (OUNI)

OUNI is an initiative to establish a public and national Open University in Nepal, which could be accomplished through the passage of a bill in parliament. Meanwhile, this initiative has been advanced through interim legal outlets provided by the Government of Nepal. OUNI brings together people from around the world to break the barriers to quality education in Nepal, with emphasis to bring rural, remote, and marginalized population groups to the main stream of higher education. This initiative is inspired by a dream of bringing quality education to the broader population of Nepal at an affordable cost through the knowledge contributions of NRNs and friends of Nepal living around the world.

OUPMO (Open University Program Management and Operation Office, Nepal):

This is a technical implementation unit of Open University Infrastructure Development Board Nepal (OUIDBN). The OUIDBN was established in 2012 by the executive order of the Government of Nepal to develop the infrastructure for the proposed Open University of Nepal. The OUPMO was established in 2014 as an executing authority to deliver academic programs and to develop academic, technical, and physical infrastructure for the Open University of Nepal.

Non-Resident Nepali Association (NRNA):

This is an international organization of Nepalese diaspora with representation in 71 countries. NRNA made Open University of Nepal Initiative (OUNI) its Flagship Project in 2010 and has since provided platforms for organizing workshops, popularizing the mission among diaspora Nepalese, providing access to its network through its national coordination councils and its world conferences.

Government of Nepal (GON):

The GON agreed to build Nepal's national open university through a broad collaborative front and helped provide space and a mandate to the Open University of Nepal Initiative Steering Committee (OUNISC) to reside and work in the Ministry premises in 2010. It tabled the Open University of Nepal bill in parliament. the GON formed OUIDBN and then OUPMO in order to accelerate the work of establishing OUN.

Athabasca University (AU):

AU has been a partner since 2010 and has injected much needed knowledge, experiences and insights to the OUNI. AU has been an instrumental partner in the institution building process and in taking ideas of international practitioners to Nepal's stakeholders.

Canada Foundation for Nepal (CFFN):

CFFN brought forward the first proposal for diaspora Nepalese collaboration with GON in the establishment of OUN through NRNA platform. It advanced the proposal until it was accepted and owned by the larger NRNA community, and has been helping to produce and disseminate intellectual property for the OUNI.

The California State University (CSU):

The California State University is the largest system of senior higher education in the country, with 23 campuses, approximately 447,000 students and 45,000 faculty and staff. The CSU awards more than 100,000 degrees annually and since its creation in 1961 has conferred nearly 2.9 million. The CSU is renowned for the quality of its teaching and for the job-ready graduates it produces. The mission of the CSU is to provide high-quality, affordable education to meet the ever changing needs of the people of California. With its commitment to excellence, diversity and innovation, the CSU is the university system that is working for California. CSU is the principal developer of the MERLOT platform for developing and sharing Open Education Recourses (OER) internationally. In August 2014, CSU agreed to provide access of this platform to OUNI through OUPMO.

MERLOT (Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching):

MERLOT is an international consortium of over 30 institutions and systems of higher education, industry partners, professional organizations and over 125,000 individuals devoted to identifying, peer reviewing, organizing and making available FREE educational resources in a range of academic disciplines for use by teachers, students, and education institutions around the world. The online Open University of Nepal Library provides access to these resources through MERLOT, www.merlot.org, which is hosted and administered by the California State University.