Students, teachers of BPKIHS issue 72-hour ultimatum, demanding reduction of foreign student quota

Published On: June 26, 2019 08:35 AM NPT By: Rohit Rai

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DHARAN, June 26: The students and teachers of BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) have been staging protests against the institute, accusing it of going against the law and providing 1/3rd seats to foreign students under MD and MS quota.

While the students claim that 1/3rd of the students enrolled by the Institute are foreign students, by going against the National Medical Education Act 2018, the officials claim that they haven't breached any law. The examination committee of the BPKIHS had made a decision to allocate 26 of the total 123 seats for MD/MS to foreign students.

After that, an entrance examination was conducted on Saturday. The teachers, junior doctors and students of BPKIHS have been expressing disappointment over the foreign student quota since the very beginning. Issuing a release on Sunday, the Junior Resident Welfare Society gave a 72-hour ultimatum to the Institute. And on Monday, they discussed the issue with the vice-chancellor.

"The objective of the institute must be to produce local manpower rather than facilitating foreigners," said Dr Kabiraj

Paudel, chairperson of the society, adding, "That is why we gave them a 72-hour ultimatum."
Dr Raj Kumar Rauniyar, vice-chancellor of BPKIHS, stated that the seats have been provided to foreign students as per the provision in the Medical Education Act.

According to him, the fees collected from foreign students and the treatment cost charged on patients are two major sources of income for the institute to pay salaries to the staffers and doctors. "We are ready to remove the quota for foreign students if the government is ready to afford the salaries of doctors and officials," said Rauniyar, adding, "We have to spend more than Rs 110 million for paying salaries on a monthly basis. How will we manage that if we don't have foreign students?"

BPKIHS has been providing free education to PG students AND the fees collected from the foreign students (mostly Indians) is the major source of income for the institute.

At the master's level, BPKIHS has a total of 150 seats of which 123 seats are for MD/MS while 18 seats are for dentists.

Similarly, it has eight seats for DM/MCH and one for MDAHA. So, foreign students will have 26 seats of MD/MS.