An autonomous non-profit, non-government institution dedicated to maintain high standards of academic excellence, Kathmandu University (KU), the first private university in Nepal is situated in Dhulikhel Municipality which is about 30 kilometers east of Kathmandu. The university was established with a vision to become a world-class university devoted to bringing knowledge and technology to the service of mankind. Its mission is to provide quality education for leadership and it is committed to develop leaders in professional areas through quality education.

The university is located in a place that has pleasant climate and panoramic Himalayan views all year round. The university that started with a rented building at Tangal, Kathmandu has now been able create a built up space of 35518 square meters. The university has not only built reasonable infrastructure but has also established a track record of academic excellence within twenty years of time. It offers various undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate programs in science, engineering, medicine, management, education, arts, pharmacy, environment, music, human and natural resources, information technology and biotechnology through School of Science, School of Management, School of Engineering, School of Medical Sciences, School of Education and School of Arts. The college intakes 1088 students out of which 280 are in intermediate level, 510 undergraduate and 298 are graduate students. The colleges affiliated to Kathmandu University have an annual intake capacity of 1194 students.

There is a credit-semester system with continuous internal evaluation for the academic programs of the university and it has adopted 1 to 10 teacher-student ratio. The staff employed at KU is 344 for teaching and 158 for non-teaching. The admission of the students is based on merit, based on their score in the previous examination and written and oral entrance tests and the university strictly follows its academic calendar of minimum 230 days. There is a Teacher Welfare Society, Student Welfare Council and Staff Welfare Society, each, in every school and the executive board is composed of members elected by teachers and students for the welfare of their community. For faculty and students exchange programs, credit transfer and joint research work and exchange information, the university has successfully collaborated with more than fifty universities and institutions of international repute which has helped it establish itself well in the world community.

The university was established with the objective of promoting all-round development of the student’s abilities and personalities, developing awareness about the role of science and its application in understanding problems of the contemporary society, extending and disseminating knowledge and foster its application, creating knowledge industry though accessing the sources of knowledge at the global level, processing them and providing access to such knowledge to the people, establishing a community of scholars, students and staff in which understanding and wisdom can grow and flourish and making it a research-cum-teaching university in science, management, engineering, medical sciences, arts and education.

The first private university in Nepal is committed to achieve excellence in teaching, providing strong support to professional courses, strengthening research activities in the fields of environment, energy, medicinal plants and information technology.  A team of dedicated professionals first established Kathmandu Valley Campus in 1985 to provide education in Intermediate of Science (I Sc) and the same team, later proposed the establishment of Kathmandu University. The Kathmandu University was granted by an Act of Parliament on December 11, 1991, after thorough discussion on the proposal in the Parliament.