The idea of establishing a South Asian University (SAU) was mooted by the Prime Minister of India at the 13th SAARC Summit in Dhaka in 2005. The idea was for member countries to pool their resources for creation of a Centre of Excellence in the form of a University that would provide world-class facilities and professional faculty to students and researchers drawn from every country of the SAARC region. The University will focus overwhelmingly on research and post-graduate level programmes. It will ultimately have 12 post-graduate science and non-science Faculties, as also a Faculty of Undergraduate Studies. .