Nalanda University eyes major academic push by adding host of Master's programmes, fellowships & global MoUs

Nalanda University is launching four more Master’s programmes in 2025, taking the total number to 12. Read more about the programmes being offered below.

With four more Master’s programmes being launched this year apart from the two introduced last year, Nalanda University has now six of them within a year to take the total number of such programmes offered at the famed institution to 12.

Nalanda University is offering four more Master’s programmes from this year. (File image/ANI)

Besides, the University has introduced Post-Doctoral Fellowships, expanding its academic scope and reinforcing its ole as a premier centre of research and higher learning, said a university statement.

The Master’s programme being offered are MA in Historical Studies, Buddhist Studies, Philosophy, and Comparative Religions, Hindu Studies (Sanātana Dharma), World Literature, Archaeology, International Relations and Peace Studies, Economics, Philosophy and Hindi.

Besides, the university is also offering M.Sc in Ecology and Environment Studies and MBA in Sustainable Development and Management.

On September 1, 2014, the university had started its academic session from the makeshift venue at the International Convention Centre at the Buddhist pilgrim town of Rajgir, barely 10 kms from the ancient seat of learning. On September 19, minister for external affairs Sushma Swaraj had formally inaugurated it.

However, it was on June 19, 2024 that Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated its sprawling state-of-the-art campus net zero blending traditional flavour of the ancient seat of learning with modernity and inspired by the original monasteries. Since then, momentum has picked up.

After a long wait, Nalanda University in May, 2025 got a regular vice chancellor with the appointment of Professor Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General of the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a New Delhi-based think tank.

Since May 2023, after the end of an extended six-year tenure of Prof Sunaina Singh as VC, Prof Abhay Kumar Singh, professor & dean, School of Historical Studies, was the interim VC of NU. Incidentally, Sunaina singh had also taken over the charge of the institution in May 2017 from an interim VC amid complete change of its governing board.

The university has had a fair share of problems over the years and it is yet to gather desired momentum. In its 11th year, it now has over 400 students, including 224 foreign students from 21 countries, enrolled with Master’s Programme for academic year 2024-2025 in eight Masters and PhD programmes. It has also started admitting students through the Common University Entrance Test (CUET) for the first time to boost intake.

With new programmes from this year, the numbers are expected to increase. Each Master’s programme is expected to have 40 students. A senior officer of the university said that total intake in the university has reached over 1200, including 800 for various short-term courses.

“The spirit of Nalanda has evolved as a vibrant expression of continuous engagement with eternal values and the civilisational ethos of the East. It embodies a rich intellectual tradition, marked by openness, inclusivity, and a globally oriented outlook. Building upon this legacy, our vision for the new Nalanda is rooted in integrative wisdom,” said the VC.

He said the institution “draws inspiration from an Eastern worldview in which faith, intellectual inquiry, and material well-being are not regarded in isolation, but as deeply interwoven dimensions of holistic human existence”.

The communication office said that the university has deepened its outreach by signing approximately 20 new Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs, including nine in the last one year, with global and national institutions.