Mumbai: The ambitious South Asian University for member countries of the South Asia Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) would be set up near Delhi and is expected to be functional by July 2009.

Planned as a center of excellence, the university will have campuses in all the eight SAARC member countries. A decision towards this was taken at a two-day meeting of the SAARC Steering Committee held in New Delhi.

India has agreed to bear the entire cost of setting up the university.

The government is acquiring 250 acres of land on the outskirts of Delhi for setting up the university.

The university is expected to be a non-profit public- private partnership.

The proposal to set up the university was made by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the 2005 Dhaka Summit of the regional grouping.

Gowhar Rizvi, director of Ash Institution of Democratic Governance & Innovations at Harvard University, who prepared the concept note for the university, has recommended a government-funded private institution model to facilitate autonomy of the university.

The role of the governments of the eight SAARC member countries will have to be confined to provision of capital for setting up the institution.

Once fully operational, the governments will not be expected to provide annual subsidies and grants. The university may, however, look for private and corporate donors without allowing them to influence its administrative and academic autonomy.