Nalanda University has come up with an ambitious plan to attract teachers from different countries to tide over the shortage of faculty members and help students enrolled in various programmes.

The university is also going to start several new courses, recruit more teachers, and also focus on the employability of the students, who pass out from the university.

The institution has been modeled on the ancient Nalanda University, that was founded by the Gupta dynasty emperor Kumargupta I in around 427 AD, and flourished till the end of the 12th century.

The revamped version of the university has six schools — historical studies; Buddhist studies, philosophy and comparative religions; ecology and environment studies; languages, literature and humanities; management studies; and international relations and peace studies – offering various courses.

Sources said that the Nalanda University should have at least 190 faculty members to cover all the programmes being offered. At present, it has just 32 teachers and 402 resident students, of which around 70 per cent hail from 25 different countries and the rest are from India.

“We have started inviting teachers from several Indian, Asian, European and American universities. They come for seven to 10 days, stay here and teach in the areas of their expertise. We are expanding it to attract more guest faculty from renowned educational institutions,” Nalanda University’s interim vice-chancellor Abhay Kumar Singh told The Telegraph.

“We are also the coordinator of Association of Southeast Asian Nations – India Network of Universities, which facilitates exchange of faculty and doctoral students, as well as, joint research. Overall, around 70 visiting teachers are invited to cover various areas in different subjects. The numbers will go up,” he added.

Exchange of doctoral students with universities inside the country and outside has been started this year.

Singh revealed that the university has received permission to fill the vacant posts of teachers, and would soon initiate the recruitment process to strengthen the teaching facilities.

The interim vice-chancellor said that the “Centre for Jain Studies” is going to be started from June, followed by the “Centre for Greek Studies” in July this year.

The university is also starting new courses in various languages including French, Spanish, Russian, Korean, German, Japanese, Sanskrit, Pali, Persian, Tibetan, and Greek.

Similarly, courses in economics, Indian philosophy, geography, Prakrit, disaster management and geo-informatics, energy management, fine arts, sociology, yoga, and future studies are in the pipeline.

“Future studies is an interesting international concept in which we visualize the future, our place in it, and how to reach there by overcoming obstructions and disruptions.,” Singh said.