University Autonomy and Sustainable Finance: A Case of Royal University of Bhutan

Abstract

Royal University of Bhutan was established in 2003 through Royal Charter. RUB is a decentralized university with eight colleges distributed across the country. In the year 2011, RUB became fully autonomous university. After two years of successful autonomy, the RUB was beginning to sense the gradual decline in government funding. This has put to test the future sustainability of the university. Colleges under RUB have saved the funds that was granted by the royal government of Bhutan (RGoB) to sustain in the future as there began gradual decline in grants during the coming years (Rigyal, 2013). This study is aimed to find the present investment policy of the colleges under RUB and recommend investment products for them to generate future sustainable income for the colleges & university. In order to assess the knowledge of the investment, expected return & risk and the preference of the colleges under RUB a set of questionnaire was administered. A total of 20 respondents, including President, finance personal and administrative officer, from 5 colleges (representing more than 60% of colleges) under RUB were taken for the study. Responses reveal the general investment policy of the colleges, present investment avenues adopted and return on them. All these facts were analyzed to propose portfolio for the colleges, which can help them to generate sustainable incomes.