02/09/2014

Low-key start of high-profile revived Nalanda University comes as a surprise

 


Patna,(BiharTimes): Perhaps no university of international standard anywhere in the world started classes with just 11 students and six faculty members––—four at the School of Historical Studies and two at the School of Ecology and Environment Studies––on the first day.
But the revived Nalanda University had a low key start with just two foreign students taking admission––one from Japan and other from neighbouring Bhutan.
Academics, social activists and mediapersons are surprised as to why after spending hundreds of crores the dream project of the former President A P J Abdul Kalam could not start with a bang. After all where was the chairman of the Mentor Group or Governing Board, Amartya Sen, on the opening day. “As the Chancellor of this new international institution he should be here,” it is being asked.
Former bureaucrat and now BJP leader N K Singh and London School of Economics Professor Lord Meghnad Desai were nowhere around, when in the past they would come all the way to Rajgir and Patna from different corners of the world on one pretext or the other. Crores of rupees would be spent to hold meeting of Mentor Group in New York, but none of these reputed names was present on the opening day to inspire faculty members as well as students.
Perhaps they may all be present on the dais on the former inaugural function to be held on September 14.
Thank God, the relatively young and somewhat inexperienced Vice Chancellor––inexperienced for international university––Gopa Sabarwal was present so was the Dean (Academic Planning) Anjana Sharma.
The classes started about eight and a half years after former President A P J Abdul Kalam, while addressing the joint session of the Bihar Assembly on March 28, 2006 first floated the idea of reviving the Nalanda University.
The new building is coming up in about 450 acres of land 12 km from the ancient ruins of the University. As the construction work on own campus is expected to start from February 2015 classes started in the International Convention Centre in Rajgir. Forty rooms of the state government-owned Tathagat Hotel have been hired for students and teachers. Women students are lodged on a separate floor.
Each discipline is to have a maximum of 20 students. In all seven schools have been planned. The students were selected from around 1,000 applicants after multiple screening and tests. The admission process is still on. Only three students are from Bihar.
The students include Ngawang, the Dean of Historical Research at Royal University of Bhutan, who is on study leave, and Akiro Nakamvva, a post-graduate from the University of Tokyo.
While two of the faculty members are from abroad––Samuel Wright from the US and Yin Ker of Singapore––the Indian teachers too have experience of teaching at foreign universities. The university plans to stick to a faculty ratio of 1:8.
Sharman Mukherjee and Kashshaf Ghani are the faculty members of School of Historical Studies. The two teachers of School of Ecology and Environment Studies are Mihir Deb and Somnath Bandyopadhya.
Professor Upendra Singh of Delhi University and daughter of former prime minister Manmohan Singh too is likely to be appointed as the guest faculty in the School of Historical Studies.
From the Rajgir Convention Centre, classes are expected to shift to a makeshift building in a month.
The annual fee for a post-graduation course is Rs three lakh, apart from Rs 75,000 administrative charges.
However, the first batch of students will have to pay only half the tuition fees.
Though it got so much international publicity and the Union government has cleared the Rs 2,700 crore cost for the university to be spent over 10 years the start of classes did not inspire even the citizens of even Rajgir or Nalanda district, not to speak of Bihar.
Instead of branding Bihar––which is essential for wooing investments––it has failed to attract even students and faculty members from India or abroad.
While the then UPA government at the Centre and former chief minister Nitish Kumar––obviously because the University was coming up in his home district––showed some interest, no major announcement has yet been made in this regard by the present Narendra Modi government.
Source apprehend that if things continue to move in the same slow pace the whole campus of this residential university, with seven schools––all for postgraduate and doctorate students––may not be complete by 2020.
The original Nalanda University was founded in the 5th century AD. It was devoted to Buddhist studies, but also offered teaching in Astronomy, Medicine, Mathematics, Politics and Fine Arts. Among its early students was Hiuen Tsang, the 7th century Chinese traveller.
But the university started suffering from lack of patronage by Indian kings in the 11th and 12th centuries.
According to legend the end came in 1193 when Ikhtiyar-uddin Mohammed Bin Bakhtyar Khilji, a general of Qutbuddun Aibak, sacked the university and set it on fire, apparently mistaking it for a fort.
During its heydays, the ancient seat of learning is believed to have a large number of students and teachers. But, Yin Ker, Adjunct Assistant Professor of School of Historical Studies, said: “Some historians and books claim that the ancient university used to buzz with activity with a large number of students and teachers. There is no evidence to prove it.”


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