Medical students staged a sit-in outside the office of Tribhuvan University Vice-chancellor Tirtha Khaniya on Wednesday, demanding that the varsity enforce the fee ceiling for Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree, as decided by the TU Executive Council on March 26. Around 20 students gathered outside VC Khaniya’s office in TU campus, Kirtipur, for nearly two hours before they were admitted inside. Dr Gunjan Khadka, one of the protesters, said that VC Khaniya allowed them only a brief moment to listen to their grievances. “Once we were admitted inside his office building, we had to wait for another two hours to meet him. In a short meeting we had with him, we asked him what the university was doing to address the concerns,” said Dr Khadka. The agitating students returned after VC Khaniya assured them that the TU was committed to enforcing the decision taken by the Executive Council. The medical students started their protest after some medical schools refused to comply with the set fee structure. Universal College of Medical Sciences, Bhiarahawa, and Gandaki Medical College, Pokhara, have filed a writ petition at the Supreme Court challenging the decision of the TU Executive Council to reduce the fee for MD course to Rs 2.2 million from Rs 3.1 million. VC Khaniya has assured the protesting students that the TU would hire the best lawyers to fight the case. “The decision taken by the TU Executive Council is final. We are not going to bend our knees before these colleges,” he told the students. Earlier, the students had staged a protest outside the office of the Institute of Medicine, the body that governs the country’s medical schools. Dr Govinda KC, a senior orthopaedic surgeon and a staunch supporter of regulating the country’s medical education sector, has also thrown his weight behind the ongoing protest. He had recently issued a statement demanding the government to scrap the affiliation of those colleges that are charging exorbitant fees by violating the regulation.