Nalanda University to Start Academic Activities From 2013

The Nalanda university will begin academic activities from the 2013-14 session from rented premises with two subjects - Historical studies and Environment and Ecological studies, Vice-Chancellor Gopa Sabarwal said today.

The Nalanda university, being set up in the scenic precincts around Ranjir, will launch academic activities from 2013-14 session and start with two subjects, she told reporters after 10-hour-long meeting of the governing board attended among others by Nobel laureate Prof Amartya Sen.

The university will carry out academic activities from rented premises for the time being till the construction of its own campus the work on which was in progress, Sabarwal said.

The contour of the historical studies will have a strong archaeological component in view of the excavations significance of the Nalanda region and Bihar which has had a great historical background since ancient times, Nalanda university vice-chancellor said.

Speaking on the occasion, Sen expressed satisfaction with the progress in the construction of Nalanda University campus and said that the members of the governing board will inspect the construction site tomorrow.

Referring to the governing board's agenda, he said that the members, barring Lord Meghnad Saha who was absent due to personal reasons, discussed and approved financial rules, statutes and rules and regulations of the new university.

Prof Sen said that the governing board has set up a high-powered international advisory panel headed by its member and former Singapore foreign minister George Yeo with a purpose to bring the world to Bihar by making investment in the new university.

Instead of Bihar seeking to draw attention of the world about its historical significance vis-a-vis ancient Nalanda university, it was the world and Asia which were looking upto the state with interests and the panel will help channelise the growing global interests into investment.

Meanwhile, another Nalanda university governing board member N K Singh said that the next meeting of the governing board will be held in Beijing sometime in the middle of October this year at the invitation of the Chinese government.