Guwahati, Dec. 23: Assam will get its fourth private university with the Gyan Sagar Foundation, an NGO, today announcing the launch of the Assam Royal Global University from academic year 2017-18.

The university will share a 20-acre campus with the Royal Group of Institutions and Royal Global Schools and aims at thwarting the brain drain from the Northeast.

"Our motto is to provide global exposure to nurture local talent. Our foundation envisages to provide the students the kind of education for which they go outside the Northeast. Study here, pay less than institutes outside the region and get employed or become entrepreneurs here," A.K. Pansari, the founder of the foundation, told reporters here this morning.

"The foundation has so far invested Rs 300 crore to develop the campus. This has been passed by the UGC," he said.

Assam got its first private university in 2009 with the inauguration of Assam Don Bosco University at Azara, Kamrup district, in 2009. This was followed by Assam Down Town University at Panikhaiti, Kamrup (metro) district in 2010 and Kaziranga University at Koraikhowa in Jorhat district in 2012.

Educationists said this showed that Assam was emerging as an higher education hub in the Northeast.

Assam Royal Global University can accommodate 1,000 students for diploma, graduation, post-graduation and PhD for 13 disciplines in its first session.

S.P. Singh, who has been appointed vice-chancellor of the university, said, "We have kept in mind two aspects while designing the courses - knowledge of the subject and other moral values. The students will have theoretical knowledge and practical implications, so that they can apply for jobs. All the courses are framed in the choice-based credit system, along with imparting additional subjects of behavioural science, foreign languages and communication skill developments," Singh said.

He said Assam Royal Global University is the second to implement choice-based credit system after Tezpur University, which did the same last year.

"Through choice-based credit system, a student can select a side course out of a basket course of 10-15 subjects and pursue it with the main course. If a student wants to pursue photography along with engineering, by the end of the second semester, he will complete a photography course and get a certificate for it. In the third semester, he can pursue another subject from the basket and by the last semester, he will have a bachelors degree in the main course, and a certificate for the rest three courses," Singh said.