TU, KU, PU & NEB Grading Systems in Nepal: GPA, Division & Percentage Reference

For decades Nepal graded students by raw percentage and sorted them into divisions on the mark-sheet: Distinction for 80 percent and above, First Division for 60 to 79 percent, Second Division for 45 to 59 percent, and Third Division for 32 to 44 percent, with the pass line at 32 percent. The School Leaving Certificate (SLC) and most university transcripts carried these labels, and employers and scholarship boards still speak in this language.

Since 2016 (2072-2073 Bikram Sambat), school and university certification has shifted to a letter-grade-point average (GPA) system on a 4.0 scale. Instead of a single aggregate percentage, each subject earns a letter grade (A+, A, B+, and so on), each letter carries a fixed grade point, and the grade points are averaged into a Grade Point Average. This is why a modern NEB or Tribhuvan University mark-sheet shows a GPA such as 3.25 rather than '68 percent, First Division'.

The two systems still coexist in practice. Many job notices, foreign university applications, and Public Service Commission (Lok Sewa) forms ask for a division or a percentage, so students routinely convert their GPA back to an approximate percentage or division. Because the letter grade already encodes a percentage band, that conversion is an estimate rather than an exact figure, and the acceptable method varies by institution.

The National Examinations Board (NEB) grades Grade 11 and Grade 12 (the '+2' level), while the Secondary Education Examination (SEE) grades Grade 10. Both follow the Letter Grading Directive, 2078 BS (2021-2022 AD), issued by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology under the Education Regulations. The directive standardises assessment for Classes 1 to 12 and assigns each grade a point and a descriptive label.

The eight-point school scale is: A+ (90-100 marks, 4.0, Outstanding), A (80-89, 3.6, Excellent), B+ (70-79, 3.2, Very Good), B (60-69, 2.8, Good), C+ (50-59, 2.4, Satisfactory), C (40-49, 2.0, Acceptable), D (35-39, 1.6, Basic/Partial), and NG (below 35, Not Graded). A student's GPA is the simple average of the subject grade points, weighted by credit hours where credits differ.

Passing is judged subject by subject, not by aggregate GPA. To be certified, a candidate must secure at least grade D (35 marks) in the theory component of every subject and at least grade C in the internal or practical component; scoring below the threshold in any subject produces NG for that subject and blocks the certificate. There is no single minimum overall GPA to 'pass' the exam, though stream and college admission cut-offs (for example a C+ in Mathematics and Science for the science stream) are set separately.

Tribhuvan University, Nepal's oldest and largest university (established 1959, 2016 BS), grades on the same 4.0 letter-point scale as NEB for most purposes: A+ = 4.0, A = 3.6, B+ = 3.2, B = 2.8, C+ = 2.4, C = 2.0, D = 1.6, and NG = 0. Performance is reported as a Semester Grade Point Average (SGPA) for a single semester and a Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) across all completed semesters, each computed as total grade points earned divided by total credit hours.

TU runs both an annual (yearly) system in many older Bachelor and traditional faculty programmes and a semester system in newer and postgraduate programmes such as MBS, MBA, BSc CSIT, BIT and most Master's degrees. In the semester system the final grade blends internal (in-semester) assessment with the end-semester board examination, and the Examination Control Division sets the pass thresholds. The end-semester external paper typically requires a higher mark than the overall 40 percent floor.

For classification, TU broadly maps CGPA to the older class labels: roughly 3.30 to 4.0 as Distinction, 2.30 to 3.29 as First Class or First Division, 1.30 to 2.29 as Second Class, and below that as merely Pass. Exact band boundaries and the minimum CGPA to graduate (commonly 2.0 at Bachelor level) differ by faculty and programme regulation, so students should confirm against their specific programme's grading policy rather than assume a universal rule.

Kathmandu University (established 1991, 2048 BS) is a fully semester-based institution and uses a more granular 4.0 scale with plus and minus grades: A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, B- = 2.7, C+ = 2.3, C = 2.0, C- = 1.7, D = 1.0, and F = 0. Note that at KU the top grade is a plain A worth 4.0 (there is no A+ above it), unlike the TU/NEB scale where A+ is the ceiling and A is 3.6.

KU is known for a stricter pass standard. The minimum passing grade in a course is generally C (around 50 percent) rather than the 40 percent floor used at TU and NEB, and continuous assessment carries real weight: a common split allocates roughly 40 percent to in-semester work and 60 percent to the end-semester examination, though exact weightings vary by school and course. A student must clear both components and maintain the required CGPA to progress.

Because KU's letter-to-point mapping differs from TU's, a numerically identical percentage can produce a different GPA at the two universities, and a KU 3.7 (A-) is not the same achievement band as a TU 3.6 (A). When comparing transcripts or converting for foreign admission, always read the grading legend printed on the specific transcript rather than assuming one national standard.

Pokhara University (established 1997, 2053 BS) is semester-based and publishes a detailed grade table on its Office of the Controller of Examinations pages. At undergraduate level the scale is A = 4.0 (90 marks and above), A- = 3.7 (85-89), B+ = 3.3 (80-84), B = 3.0 (75-79), B- = 2.7 (70-74), C+ = 2.3 (65-69), C = 2.0 (60-64), C- = 1.7 (55-59), D+ = 1.3 (50-54), D = 1.0 (45-49) and F = 0 (below 45). Graduate programmes use a compressed scale where the pass floor is higher.

PU expresses results as SGPA (one semester) and CGPA (all semesters). The normal minimum CGPA to earn the degree is 2.0 at undergraduate level and 3.0 at the graduate level. For honours, a degree 'with distinction' requires a CGPA of 3.60 or better (3.75 at graduate level), and the semester Dean's List generally requires at least 3.7 (3.8 at graduate level).

Pass marks at PU are set at 45 percent for both the internal and the end-semester examination at undergraduate level, and 60 percent at graduate level. This means a PU undergraduate must clear 45 percent in each component of a course to earn credit, a threshold that sits between TU's 40 percent and KU's roughly 50 percent standards. As always, programme-specific regulations override the general framework.

The annual (yearly) system examines a whole year of coursework in one final board examination, with pass or fail decided largely on that single sitting; it is still common in some TU faculty Bachelor programmes. The semester system splits the year into two semesters, examines each separately, and folds continuous internal assessment into the final grade, which spreads risk and rewards steady work. KU, PU and TU's newer and postgraduate programmes are semester-based, while much of TU's traditional undergraduate teaching remains annual.

Converting a GPA to the old division is inherently approximate because a letter grade covers a range of marks. A widely used school-level rule of thumb multiplies the NEB/TU GPA by about 25 to estimate a percentage (so a 3.2 GPA is roughly 80 percent), but this is indicative only and not officially endorsed for all boards. For universities that print percentage bands per grade, a fairer conversion averages the midpoints of each grade band rather than applying a flat multiplier.

Because different institutions ask for GPA, percentage, or division on their forms, it helps to keep all three figures for your own record. Our companion calculators do the arithmetic for each level: the SEE GPA and Class 12 GPA tools compute school GPA from subject grades, the TU CGPA tool aggregates semester credits, and the GPA-to-percentage converter estimates a percentage and division from a GPA. Use them together with the exact grade legend on your own transcript.