The South Asian University (SAU) to be located in New Delhi will be ready to cater to students in the region, including Sri Lankan students, with undergraduate and post graduate courses by the end of this year, Higher Education Minister Prof. Wiswa Warnapala said.
The minister said that annually US $ 61 million is spent by parents here to enable their children to enter and study in universities in developed countries.
“The management of a medical college in China informed that there are more than 600 Sri Lankan students presently there. Most of the students are from upper and middle class families and their parents are compelled to spend around 60 percent of their income on the higher studies of their children,” he said.
He said the SAU would create opportunities for a large number of Sri Lankans. SAU will be developed as a global centre of excellence on the lines of American Ivy League universities.
“Not only India, but all the countries of the region would benefit from the university. The cost of the studies would be much less compared to that of other universities,” Prof. Warnapala said.
The university is hoping to start Faculties of Science, Arts and Humanities and Management. Faculties of Medicine, Law and Engineering would follow later. The Faculty of Management will have a full fledged school of management; the Science Faculty will have four schools including life science and bio-technology, physical and chemical sciences, earth system science, mathematics and information technology. The Faculty of Arts and Humanities will have schools for design, humanities, social sciences and economics.
The university is to be located in a 100 acre land at Maiden Gahi near Indira Gandhi National Open University in Delhi and will be a fully residential campus.
The university would offer doctoral, graduate and undergraduate degree programmes. |
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