Kathmandu, Feb. 3 -- 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 ...