The Cabinet approved the Educational Consultancy, Language and Preparation Classes (Operation and Management) Regulations 2026 in July. Most of the coverage since has been about what it costs consultancies: a Rs 2.5 million deposit to open or renew an office, a Rs 25,000 annual licence fee where there used to be none, separate toilets, disabled access, a three-year lease.
That is the part the sector is protesting about. It is not the part that matters to you.
Four provisions in the same regulation change what a student is entitled to ask for, and most students do not know they exist. Here they are.
1. You get it in writing, before you pay anything
Before any service is provided, the consultancy has to sign a written agreement with you setting out the consultancy fee, its own registration details, the admission conditions, the scholarship provisions and the refund policy.
Not a receipt. Not a brochure. An agreement, before the work starts, naming what happens to your money if things go wrong.
If you are asked to pay before you have been given one, that is the moment to ask for it. Ask for it in the office, on the day, before the transfer.
2. Fees have to be published
Public disclosure of fees is now required. A consultancy that will not tell you its fee until you are sitting in the room has stopped complying with the rule that exists specifically to stop that.
Ours are on this site, including the parts we are still confirming.
3. Cash is out
Every transaction has to go through the banking system. This is the single most useful line in the regulation for a student, and it is worth understanding why.
Cash is what makes a dispute unwinnable. Six months later, when there is a disagreement about what was paid and what it covered, the party without a bank record loses, and that is always the student. Insisting on a transfer is not suspicion. It is the only version of the transaction that can be checked afterwards by either of you.
4. Every consultancy will carry a public grade
The Ministry of Education will classify each registered consultancy as A, B or C, on student outcomes, service quality and the number of complaints received, and publish the result on its own website.
That is going to be uncomfortable for a lot of offices in Kathmandu, and it should be. It is also the first time a Nepali student will be able to compare two consultancies on something other than the size of their signboard.
And one that only matters if things go badly
If you end up stranded abroad, or the institution turns out to be fraudulent, and that happened because of misleading advice from your consultancy, the consultancy is liable to compensate you for the financial loss and for the mental distress.
That clause exists because of what happened to more than a hundred students sent to the UAE, who arrived to find their college was a rented apartment, the classes were irregular or non-existent, and the promised jobs did not exist. Six operators were arrested. Police raided consultancies across the Valley, detained 69 people, and cases were filed against 32 firms operating with no registration at all.
What to do with this
Four questions, in the office, before you pay anything:
- May I see the written agreement first?
- What is your fee, and what exactly does it cover?
- What is your bank account number?
- What is your registration number with the Ministry of Education?
An office that answers all four without hesitating is one you can work with. An office that is annoyed by the questions has told you something useful.