18 July, 2009 - Bhutan’s first private college, the Royal Thimphu College (RTC), was inaugurated yesterday by Her Majesty the Royal Grandmother Ashi Kesang Choeden Wangchuck.
Sprawled over 25 acres at Ngabiphu, about 10 km away from the city, RTC stands majestically in its impressive conventional and contemporary architecture amidst the dense blue pine forest.
With its phase I completed, the college has 16 buildings, comprising four student’s residences, that can accommodate 290 students, dining facilities, a bookstore and sports facilities like a football ground and a gym.
Each classroom, with tiled flooring and comfortable chairs, can seat between 40-60 students. On July 20, RTC’s first batch of 318 undergraduates, with one foreign student from Korea, will begin their two-day orientation and first semester. About 56 percent of the students are females.
The college, affiliated to the royal university of Bhutan (RUB), offers bachelor programs in computer application (BCA), business administration (BBA), commerce (BCom) and BA programs in English, economics, environmental science, Dzongkha, sociology and political science. It also has a fee-based bus service between RTC and Thimphu for its students and staff quarters.
Addressing the gathering that comprised royal family members, the prime minister, senior government officials and faculty members, the chief executive of RTC, Tenzing Yonten said, “We started this project as a way to address the shortage of seats in higher education within Bhutan and to provide an alternative to the traditional teaching-learning pedagogy.”
RTC aspires to provide a level of education that will inspire its students to achieve their full potential and to be an exemplar to other institutes in the country.
“One of the objectives of RTC is to provide quality education at a reasonable cost,” said Tenzing Yonten. “It may surprise many, but our detailed study showed that our total fees are at par with the costs the government incurs in educating a student at Sherubtse, when all sunk, hidden and other costs are included.”
Providing the highest quality of education, while keeping the fees affordable, would be RTC’s main challenge, said Tenzing Yonten. “Quality comes at a cost and sometimes these two are inversely related. The other challenge is the quality of our applicant pool.”
To achieve its academic goals by having high performing students, the college plans to have at least 45 students on RTC scholarship by 2011. To assist students financially, RTC has also created student jobs at the hostels, library and IT labs.
When the construction of RTC is completed by 2011, it will have 34 buildings, an enrolment of about 1,000 students and 72 faculty members. The total cost of the project is Nu 580 million.
Source: kuenselonline.com |
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