Kathmandu, Dec. 5 -- A draft bill that would replace political figures with academics as university chancellors is being prepared as the government pushes ahead with the reform.

A taskforce led by Dev Raj Adhikari, chairperson of the University Grants Commission, is working on the bill, which will be submitted to the government next week. The taskforce has focused on two major legal reforms through the bill. First, a governance system, and second, a single service commission to recruit teaching and non-teaching staff.

"The draft will be finalised within a week," said Adhikari. "We are revising the previous bill, incorporating necessary changes, rather than preparing an entirely new bill."

Under pressure from various quarters, the then ...