Nalanda University set to start next year

The university will be set up with the help of financial and infrastructural contributions from 16 East Asian countries, which have Buddhism as the common thread. Once it is adopted as an international treaty, a legislation will be passed by the Indian Government in Parliament and a necessary legal framework will be created for the institution.

The mentor group — including Lord Meghnad Desai, N K Singh, deputy chairman of Bihar’s Planning Commission, professor Sugata Bose of Harvard University and professor Wang Banwei of Beijing University — later met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, where they explained the progress made with regards to the timeline of the university. The group will also be submitting a report later this year, which will be presented at the East Asian Summit in Bangkok in December, 2008.

While the university will be able to start with teaching on campus only by 2010, it can commence functioning from a “makeshift” campus by 2009 academic year, mentor group members said here on Wednesday. The university will have six schools: Buddhist Studies, Language and Literature, Development and Management, Ecology and Environment, Historical Studies and, finally, International Studies. Although the university will initially feature only postgraduate and research programmes, undergraduate degrees will be offered eventually, said Sen.

Mentor group member N K Singh said, “One of the schools, the school of International Studies, will have its footprint in Delhi,” adding that this will be an additional incentive for the faculty members.