The Dalai Lama, Amartya Sen and Lord Meghnad Desai will help in setting up an international university in Nalanda, the famous Buddhist centre of learning in Bihar.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told rediff.com in Patna on Tuesday that the Dalai Lama promised to back and fully support the setting up of the university in Nalanda.

"Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen and Meghnad Desai have agreed to be part of the international group of wise men to give their support and advice for setting up an international university," Nitish Kumar said.

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama had offered to donate Tibetan Buddhist artifacts to the proposed international university.

The state government will also rope experts from Singapore and Japan for setting up the university. Japan and Singapore have shown interest in investing about $100 million for the university.

Sen and Desai will hold a series of meetings, the last will be held in Nalanda, he said.

Early this year, Nitish Kumar had sought the help of Dalai Lama, Sen and Desai for this ambitious project.

The Bihar Assembly unanimously approved the University of Nalanda Bill, 2007, for the setting an international university, on Monday.

Nitish Kumar described the bill approved by the state Assembly as one of great opportunity. The state Cabinet approved the University of Nalanda Bill, 2007, early this month. The bill stated that the international university would strive to create a world free of war, terror and violence.

"This (bill) is not only for Bihar or even India. The bill will act as a facilitator for what will emerge as the centre for renaissance of the East. I strongly feel that the university will become a reference point for international relations and a centre for peace and resolution of disputes," Nitish Kumar said

An internationally acclaimed scholar will be the chancellor of the proposed international university, which will be fully residential like the ancient Nalanda University with seven different schools and 46 foreign faculties members, according to the DPR that was submitted to the state government last month.

It will strive to create a world free of war, terror and violence. It will impart courses in Science, Philosophy, Spiritualism and other subjects. It will have the status of a Central university.

Educational Consultants of India, a consulting educational company under the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development, has prepared the DPR.

According to the DPR, in the first phase the university will set up seven different schools that will offer only post-graduate, research, doctoral and post-doctoral degrees.

The DPR is also in favour of offering undergraduate courses in specific areas.

Intitially the university will enroll 1,137 students from both India and abroad in the first year. But by the fifth year the number of students will increase to 4,530. In the second phase, the enrollment of students will go upto 5,812.

The DPR stated that there will be a 1:10 ratio of student to faculty members in the university. The university's built up area will be 1,80,515 sq km on a sprawling 500 acre campus.