SAARC university project gets 100 acres of land

New Delhi: On the anvil for two years, the SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) University took shape, with the Government of India formally setting aside land for the project.

A huge space some 100 acre identified for the university at Maidangarh in Mehrauli, was dedicated to the project by external affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee.

The university was announced way back during the 13th summit of SAARC in Dhaka, where Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made an emphatic statement in this regard.

The objective of the SAARC university is to remove illiteracy and promote higher education across the SAARC space the two main objectives that prompted SAARC leaders to agree upon such an arrangement, with India in the lead role. The project will facilitate quality education for students of the SAARC grouping, and will roll from the next academic session in July 2009.

In the meantime, modalities regarding syllabus to be taught, administrative arrangements for healthy governance of the institution, admission and recruitment nuances, and fee structure will be clearly spelt out.

Involved also with the proposal is the Ministry of Human Resource Development. As regards capital costs whereas India will pay for setting up of the university, which will work on a non-profit basis, campuses of the facility will also come up in the SAARC member nations.

To begin with, the university will have a chief executive officer supported by a team, for which member nations have also been asked to send in recommendations.

Gowhar Rizvi, director, Ash Institution of Innovations at Harvard University, who had earlier been asked to develop an operational plan, has prepared the university’s concept. The university’s autonomy has been accorded top priority by those behind the draft, and a provision of both privately-aided and government-supported education has been made to ensure independence of the academic institution.

Prof G.K. Chadha, member of the Prime Minister’s economic advisory council and former vice-chancellor of JNU, is the frontrunner for the top post of the university.