Visa woes, ‘low stipend’, protest backlash—why SAARC university is a far cry from Manmohan’s vision
Soniya Agrawal | 1 July 2023 | The Print
Representational image.
Thirteen years after it was set up, the South Asian University (SAU) — envisioned by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a progressive regional forum “for human advancement” for students coming from member nations of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) — is seeing a decline in enrollment of international students.
Announced at the 13th SAARC Summit in Dhaka in November 2005 and established in 2010 by its eight member nations — Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka — the SAU offers post-graduate and doctorate programmes in economics, computer science, biotechnology, mathematics, sociology, international relations, and law, among others.