For years, the appointment of the vice-chancellor at Kathmandu University has been mired in controversy—and history has repeated itself once again.

As then vice-chancellor Bhola Thapa was set to retire on January 19, the government on December 14 constituted a recommendation committee chaired by Suresh Raj Sharma, former vice-chancellor at the university. Dr Arjun Karki and Janardan Nepal, a former government secretary, are the members of the committee.

The committee on January 2 invited applications from aspirants for the executive head of the varsity, setting PhD as a minimum qualification. The criteria met with criticism after the teachers under the university’s medical school said it was targeted to bypass them as their highest degree is MD/MS, not PhD.

Of 17 who applied, 16 professors with PhD were listed for the position in the first phase. The list too landed in controversy as it included two of Sharma’s close relatives. Though the working procedure clearly says member(s) of the selection committee cannot be in the team if their close relatives are the applicants, Sharma has not recused as chair.

The medical teachers not just expressed their reservation to the criteria; they also wrote to Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli, the university’s chancellor, requesting him to create criteria that allows them to apply.

On January 18, during the university assembly, Oli, in the capacity of the chancellor, instructed that the procedure be amended to allow faculties of the School of Medical Sciences to apply. The Sharma-led committee on Friday reopened the applications clearing the hurdles for the faculties from the medical sciences. Now anyone with a master’s degree is eligible to apply for the position. Applicants have until Friday to apply.

Those already in the list do not need to reapply.

However, seven out of 16 shortlisted candidates registered a letter at Oli’s secretariat saying they have no trust that the Sharma-led panel would make transparent and impartial appointments. They have raised two issues over impartiality: listing Sharma’s close relatives as the candidates and his move to write to the prime minister to allow Thapa to work as an acting vice-chancellor. Against the practice of allowing the university’s registrar as an acting vice-chancellor, Sharma batted for Thapa after his retirement. He was appointed to the position in 2022 for four years.

Sharma, though not in his terms of reference, had written to Oli to allow Thapa to continue as an acting vice-chancellor. However, Achyut Wagle, the varsity’s registrar, is leading the university as an acting executive head.

“The chair’s [Sharma’s] attachment towards his relatives and immediate past vice-chancellor Thapa shows he would be biased towards other candidates,” reads the letter by the seven applicants.

They have demanded Oli’s intervention for a fair and transparent selection process.

“This selection committee has messed up everything. Different developments clearly suggest who it wants as the vice-chancellor,” Bibhut Ranjan Jha, one of the applicants, told the Post.

Sharma, the founding vice-chancellor, worked for five full terms. He resigned in 2012 after completing two years of his sixth term.

Appointment of his successor too was full of controversies. There were allegations that Dr Ram Kanth Makaju got the appointment as Sharma’s successor on the condition that Morang’s Birat Medical College and Rupandehi’s Devdaha Medical College are granted university affiliation. They were eventually allowed to conduct MBBS courses as an extended programme.

Makaju, who is credited for establishing the Dhulikhel Hospital as one of the best community hospitals in the country, got appointment despite landing in one after another controversies over his working style.

Thapa replaced him in 2020.