Kathmandu, July 22
The Council for Technical Education and Vocational Training (CTEVT) has announced that entrance examinations for the three-year Proficiency Certificate Level (PCL) Nursing (Staff Nurse) program will no longer be held starting this academic year.
Instead, students will be selected based on their Secondary Education Examination (SEE) GPA, which the council considers a scientific and transparent metric. With this change, prospective nursing students across Nepal will no longer need to travel to Kathmandu for entrance exams.
According to CTEVT spokesperson Ekaraj Adhikari, admissions were previously based solely on entrance tests. However, declining student interest in some technical programs and vacant seats in programs other than Nursing, Health Assistant (HA), and Pharmacy prompted the policy shift.
“In some programs with 48 available seats, only 40 students applied,” Adhikari said. “It raised questions about the necessity of the entrance exam.”
From this year, students with a minimum GPA of 2.0, or a second division under the old SLC system, will be eligible to apply. Government school students will receive a 0.15 GPA advantage—1 GPA point will be added for public school graduates and 0.85 for private school graduates to ensure fairness.
Students can now apply online through CTEVT’s ITMS system by visiting ctevt.org.np or ctevtexam.org.np. Both scholarship and paying students must pay a Rs 1,000 application fee via Connect IPS or Khalti.
There are currently 63 approved institutions offering the PCL Nursing program, each with 40 seats—3 for scholarships and 37 for paying students—allowing a total of 2,520 students, including 120 on scholarships, to enroll nationwide.
The GPA-based, automated selection system is expected to ensure faster and more transparent admissions. The online system also prevents colleges from manipulating applications, as institutions will not know which students have applied to them until results are published.
CTEVT claims the new process will eliminate favoritism, ensure equity, and reduce the financial and logistical burden on students and families.
