Dharan-based BP Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) has asserted that the institute has given utmost priority to Nepali medical students, refuting charges that it had enrolled more foreign students exceeding the quotas in MD and MS programmes.

Clarifying its quota policy at a press meet on Tuesday, Dr Raj Kumar Rauniyar, the vice-chancellor said, “Twenty-six of total 123 seats at MD and MS levels have been allocated to the students of foreign countries.”

He claimed that the institute allocated quotas for foreign students as per the Medical Education Act. The Act states that medical colleges cannot allocate more than a third of the total seats to the foreign students.

The BPKIHS has been criticised as it allocated three out of five quotas each in general medicine and paediatric, and four of six quotas in surgery to foreign students.

“I have already informed the health minister and health secretary about the issue,” he added.

The BPKIHS managed 28 such quotas to foreign students in the last academic year. “We have decreased the quotas to foreign students in comparison to last year. The quota issue has been raised unnecessarily,” said Dr Gauri Shankar Sah, the director of the institute.