Project office for SAARC university by year-end

In an attempt to strengthen the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the last SAARC Summit had proposed a common university.

The university dedicated totally to the students from the eight member countries of SAARC is slated to come up in Delhi by 2009.

Land area of around 100- acre has been allotted by the Delhi government for this purpose. The university with complete residential facility is looking at an intake of 5,000 students in the first year which is expected to grow to 15,000 by 2011. It will offer both undergraduate as well as post graduate courses.

A project office for the university is likely to come up by this month end. The office headed by an interim chief executive officer (CEO) from India, will be established for the period of two years and will oversee construction, draw up its charter, bye-laws, business plan, governance structure, course amongst other functions, confirmed the Ministry of External Affairs.

The interim CEO will be assisted by three experts or senior academics from the region. An eight-member sub-committee of the steering committee, comprising one member from each SAARC country shall be responsible for the selection of interim CEO and three experts.

India would put up a panel of three names for interim CEO, in order of preference, for consideration of the sub-committee of the Steering Committee.

"The broader mission is to create a South Asian community by creating a world class university. All these countries have a common past and are somewhere either culturally or historically linked. The need,therefore, is to provide a single platform for the youth of these countries to interact," said Gowher Rizvi, director ASH Institute of governance and Innovation, Harvard University and responsible for drafting the proposal for the university.

"We had an agreement that the land and the capital investment will be provided by the host country. Thereafter on the running cost there will be some contribution on pro rata basis. Funding from other nations will be upfront. But of course, the finer details will be worked out soon," Rizvi added.