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S Asian varsity to open doors in Aug
Ashok Tuteja
Tribune News Service

Thimphu, April 27
The SAARC dream of setting up a university to bring students of South Asia together will soon turn into a reality. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna today announced at the SAARC Council of Ministers’ meeting that the South Asian University would start its first academic session in August this year.

The main campus of the university will be in New Delhi. It will host nearly 5,000 students and an international faculty and also have linked campuses in other South Asian countries.

The South Asian University is the brainchild of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He had first proposed the idea for such a university at the 13th SAARC summit in Dhaka. An inter-governmental agreement on it was signed among SAARC member states at the 14th summit held in New Delhi in 2007.

Jawaharlal Nehru University former vice-chancellor GK Chaddha had been entrusted with the nitty-gritty that includes acquiring land, overseeing its construction, and drawing up its charter, byelaws, business plan, governance structure and course curricula.

The project was executed by the Ministry of External Affairs in consultation with the UGC and the Human Resource Development Ministry’s Department of Education.