Prof. Dr. Smriti Karki has been appointed Vice-Chancellor of the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS) in Dharan, the latest in a run of open-competition Vice-Chancellor appointments across Nepal's government health science academies in mid-2026. The appointment ends a roughly ten-week caretaker period at BPKIHS that began when the government removed the institute's previous Vice-Chancellor under a nationwide ordinance in May 2026.
| New Vice-Chancellor | Prof. Dr. Smriti Karki |
| Selection process | Open competition run jointly across 6 health science academies (BPKIHS, Patan, NAMS, Pokhara, Rapti, Karnali); 16 applications accepted for BPKIHS, 14 shortlisted; interviews held Asar 16, 2083 (June 30, 2026) |
| Outgoing VC | Prof. Dr. Bikram Prasad Shrestha (appointed August 14, 2025; removed by ordinance, May 2, 2026) |
| Caretaker leadership | Assoc. Prof. Dr. Indra Limbu, appointed Acting Director on Baisakh 24, 2083 |
Background: Who is Smriti Karki?
Prof. Karki was already a senior member of BPKIHS's own faculty before this appointment. According to the institute's official departmental page, she is Professor and Head of the Department of Pathology at BPKIHS.
As with several other recent appointments in this round of health-academy leadership changes, Prof. Karki's selection continues a pattern of internal candidates long-serving departmental heads and senior faculty already embedded in the institution winning out through open competition, rather than the political appointments that characterized the previous cycle.
Selection process: a joint competition across six health science academies
BPKIHS's Vice-Chancellor post was filled through the same joint process covering six government health science academies: BPKIHS, Patan Academy of Health Sciences, the National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS), Pokhara Academy of Health Sciences, Rapti Academy of Health Sciences, and Karnali Academy of Health Sciences under the "Integrated Procedure for the Selection and Recommendation of Vice-Chancellors of Health Science Academies, 2083."
- Applications were invited around Jestha 4, 2083. Of 113 applications received across all six academies, 16 were for the BPKIHS post specifically.
- A shortlist of 86 candidates across all six academies was published on Asar 2, 2083; 14 of these were BPKIHS candidates.
- Interviews and presentations for BPKIHS candidates were held on Asar 16, 2083 (June 30, 2026).
- A Selection and Recommendation Committee, formed under Minister of Health and Food Safety Nisha Mehta, forwarded a shortlist of names per academy to the Council of Ministers for final appointment.
The predecessor: how the previous leadership left
Prof. Dr. Bikram Prasad Shrestha was appointed BPKIHS's Vice-Chancellor on August 14, 2025, one of four health science academy VCs sworn in together before then-Prime Minister and Chancellor KP Sharma Oli alongside new VCs at Karnali, Patan, and Pokhara academies. That round of appointments followed a period of delay caused by disagreement within the governing coalition over how to divide the four posts; Nepali media reporting at the time described the BPKIHS post specifically as having gone to the Nepali Congress's share of the allocation, with Prof. Shrestha's name emerging after the party could not initially agree among several contenders.
His tenure ended under the "Special Arrangement for Removal of Public Office-Holders Ordinance, 2083," issued on Baisakh 20, 2083 (May 2, 2026) alongside a parallel ordinance amending laws governing Health Science Academies. Under the B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences Act, 2049, this removed 15 office-holders at BPKIHS in a single action, including the Vice-Chancellor and Registrar.
The Ministry of Health and Population subsequently assigned Assoc. Prof. Dr. Indra Limbu as Acting Director at BPKIHS around Baisakh 24, 2083, to keep the institute running through the open-competition process that has now concluded with Prof. Karki's appointment.
