Patna, July 19: Nobel laureate Amartya Sen would be the first chancellor of Nalanda University.

A formal announcement in this regard was made after a meeting of the governing board, which too is headed by Sen, here today.

“(The) President of India has given consent for appointment of Amartya Sen as the chancellor of Nalanda University,” former foreign minister of Singapore, George Yeo, announced this at a news briefing held after the board meeting. The President is the ex-officio visitor of the university.

Located around 90km southeast of Patna and around 10km from the ruins of the site of the ancient Nalanda university, the institution is coming up at Rajgir on a 446-acre plot of land provided by the state government.

Today’s meeting, the fourth of the board, was attended by all members, barring Wang Gungwu and Prapod Assavavirulhakar.

The board resolved to set up two more committees. The first, called endowment committee, would be headed by board member and parliamentarian N.K. Singh. The other, christened International Advisory Panel, would be led by Yeo. Thailand’s princess Siriwanwaree Nareerat and economist Lord Meghnad Desai will be members.

“We are in touch with several other eminent international personalities for being on this panel but it would not be appropriate to share their names before getting their consent,” vice-chancellor Gopa Sabharwal said.

The endowment committee’s job would be to raise funds through non-government sources.

The funds for the project are coming from other sources as well. While China has provided a fund of $1 million for the university, Thailand too has pitched in with $1,00,000. Board chief Sen announced that Unesco goodwill ambassador in Paris, Mandanjeet Singh, who is also associated with South Asia Foundation, has committed to provide a fund of $1 million.

Singapore has offered help in setting up the library.

The architecture of the university would be decided after a design competition carried out by an international jury.

The faculty for the two schools of Historical Studies and Ecology and Environment Studies would be completed by July 2013. Each school would have 13 faculty members, board member Sugata Bose of Harvard University said.

The academic work of the two schools would start from 2014. The time in between would be used by faculty members to chalk out the curriculum for the courses.

The governing board also approved the recommendations of the national monitoring committee, headed by Planning Commission deputy chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Among the recommendations are setting up of an airport at Nalanda.

Nobel laureate Sen said he was “satisfied with the pace” of progress in setting up the university. He said a lot of work would now be taken up simultaneously to meet deadlines.

Earlier in the day, the governing board members had an hour’s luncheon meeting with chief minister Nitish Kumar. Nitish underlined the need for setting up schools for economics and basic sciences.