Nepal, Sept. 8 -- Recent news that the registrar and the rector of Tribhuvan University (TU) were assigned personal security officers amid increasing security threats is not common. Academic institutions are considered to be peace zones. The global trend is that the state civil authorities, including the security forces, are not allowed to enter university premises without a warrant or consent from authorised university officials. On the contrary, our universities are increasingly turning into battlegrounds involving students, security forces and university staff. Even the country's oldest and leading academic institution, TU, is gravely suffering from this delinquency.

Over the past few decades, TU has fallen into the tight grip of poli...