Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Nalanda University shall be Icon of Asian Renaissance, Says new VC Sunaina Singh !!

Vice Chancellor Sunaina Singh on Friday said she envisions Nalanda University as an intellectual bridge between India, Asia as well as Asia-Pacific countries. Sunaina Singh, who took over as the Vice Chancellor of Nalanda University on May 15, 2017 said this while interacting with media here in Bihar’s Nalanda district, about 100 km from capital Patna.

She also said that Nalanda would be a symbol of India’s soft power.

“Efforts will be to strive to build Nalanda as an icon of Asian Renaissance. The 21st century belongs to Asia and Nalanda will be an example of this resurgence,” she said.

Talking about future roadmap of Nalanda University she said her focus will be on five major areas: expansion of departments and schools, streamlining administration, improving infrastructure, capacity building and library.

Elaborating further on expansion of schools she said, “We need to build more schools and departments for academic excellence. The School of Linguistics and Literature and the School of International Relations and Peace Studies will be the next Schools that we will focus on. Within the existing Schools we will create new departments”.

For instance in the School of Buddhist studies, Philosophy and Comparative Religions we plan to also introduce Vedic Studies, Indian spiritual tradition and peace studies, she added.

She shared that the University may also start some short-term executive programmes on subjects like Mindfulness and Yoga.
Read more: http://indianexpress.com/article/india/nalanda-university-shall-be-icon-of-asian-renaissance-says-new-vc-4664216/

Sunday, May 14, 2017

Nalanda University signs MOU with Japan’s Kanazawa University !!

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) has been signed between Nalanda University and Kanazawa University of Japan on Friday to promote and develop cooperation through the exchange of faculty members, research fellows, students, academic material, publications and information.
“India and Japan are ancient civilizations, bound by close cultural ties, and Nalanda played a crucial role in this civilizational dialogue. Since Nalanda University has the mandate to rediscover the threads of inter-Asian connection, our MoU with Kanazawa University holds immense significance” Nalanda’s Interim Vice Chancellor, Pankaj Mohan, said at the signing of the MOU with Kanazawa University’s Head of the School of Humanities, Mori Masahide.


The two universities will also conduct joint research projects and will organise symposiums together, the university informed. Registrar K Chandramoorthi said that they were pleased to collaborate with “a 50-year-old National University of Japan whose roots can be traced to 1862”.

“Kanazawa University has been designated by the Japanese Ministry of Education as a “Super Global University”, and as Nalanda University shares this vision and goal, the MoU would pave the way for an enduring partnership between the two institutions,” Masahide said. The Japanese university has 16 schools with 11,000 students and offers undergraduate and post graduate courses.
Source: goo.gl/XRHApR

What the ruins of the original Nalanda university tell us about an old civilization of India ?

  Our knowledge of Nalanda comes from three kinds of primary sources: archaeology, epigraphy (the study of inscriptions) and texts that surv...