Tech leaders and academia collaborated to design Nepal’s new Industry-Integrated Degree (IID) IT curriculum across five high-demand specializations.
Kathmandu: What should students learn if they are expected to work in the IT industry from the beginning of their degree?
This question is at the centre of the second episode of the Industry-Integrated Degree (IID) Roundtable, where technology leaders and academic experts discuss how the IID curriculum was designed and why five technology specializations were selected for the programme.
The curriculum has been developed through direct collaboration between industry and academia, with technology leaders and university experts working together to identify the knowledge, technical skills, and professional capabilities required in today's IT sector.
More than 40 industry professionals, including CEOs, CTOs, engineers, technology leaders, and other experts, contributed to the curriculum development process. Their input was combined with the academic expertise of university professors to create a programme that connects classroom learning with real workplace requirements.
Five Specializations for Emerging IT Careers
A key focus of the discussion is the five specialization areas identified for IID:
Application Development
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Cloud Engineering
Data Engineering
Cybersecurity
These areas were selected based on the changing needs of Nepal's IT industry and the growing demand for technology professionals in the global market.
The roundtable discusses why these five areas are becoming increasingly important and how students can develop specialized skills while building a strong foundation in IT.
Learning Beyond the Classroom
The IID curriculum is designed around the idea that students should not have to wait until graduation to understand how the technology industry works.
Students will build their academic foundation while gaining exposure to real industry environments. As they progress through the four-year programme, academic learning and practical experience will develop together.
The discussion also explores how industry participation in curriculum development can help reduce the long-standing gap between what universities teach and what employers expect from graduates.
Bringing Industry Into Curriculum Design
For IID, industry participation does not end with hiring graduates. Industry professionals are involved in identifying what students should learn and the skills they should develop for future careers.
The second episode of the IID Roundtable brings together these perspectives and examines how a more industry-responsive IT degree can prepare students for a rapidly changing technology landscape.
The discussion features experts from Leapfrog Technology Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Guardsix Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Fusemachines Nepal Pvt. Ltd., Maitri Holdings Services Pvt. Ltd., and Amnil Technologies Pvt. Ltd., moderated by Dr. Bhoj Raj Ghimire, Dean of Nepal Open University.
The Industry-Integrated Degree (IID) is an initiative of the Nepal Association for Software and IT Services Companies (NAS-IT) in collaboration with Nepal Open University (NOU), supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) through the technical assistance of Swisscontact.
