What do you think of the use of data in higher education in Nepal? Do you feel that data is used sufficiently in teaching by teachers or in essays and presentations by students?
Data is used in observation and analysis of certain issues, but it is based on qualitative and not quantitative measurement. In Nepal, data is not scientifically collected and analyzed, so it becomes difficult for teachers to teach students based on data. As a result, students when writing essays and presentation use data very little.
As a student of Peace, Conflict and Development Studies, what is the importance of data in your study?
Conflict, Peace and Development Studies (CPDS) teach about the political and social events happening in the past. You also learn as a student how research was conducted then and what methods were used to explain history. This helps to ensure that the methods for collecting the data will be helpful for future use too. So, it is very important for the department to teach about how historical data was collected during presentations and seminars organized for students.
For what purpose do you need data most? And how do you look for data?
For understanding a topic like politics or history, data is a must. CPDS teaches us about political research methods and using these methods. After that, weI have to make an analysis and present our findings. For that, we have to study the data provided by different scholars from books or websites. Normally, I surf different websites to search for the data depending upon the topics given.
What are the biggest challenges in searching for data as a student?
The biggest challenge when searching for data is that there are not enough websites that provide statistical information. When searching for a topic, different information is provided on different websites. Hence, it becomes confusing to rely upon the information.
As a student, what message would you like to give to your friends or other students regarding the importance of data and the use of the Nepal in Data portal?
Data is very important to get to understand any issue whether it's politics or a society. If you have to know about the history of a country or business, data helps you to be informed about it. The www.nepalindata.com portal provides the information about different issues in infographics and videos, which is helpful to understand the subject easily.