One of the world's oldest universities – Nalanda, in the impoverished Indian state of Bihar – is to be refounded more than 800 years after it was destroyed, fulfilling the dreams of scholars from India, Singapore, China, and Japan.

India's parliament will this week consider legislation allowing foreign partners to help recreate the ancient Buddhist centre of learning close to the red-brick ruins of the original university, 55 miles from Patna, Bihar's capital.

The initiative has been championed by Amartya Sen, the world-renowned scholar and Nobel laureate for economics, who described Nalanda as “one of the highest intellectual achievements in the history of the world”. Prof Sen said Nalanda's recreation would lead to a renaissance of Indian learning that would draw students from all over the region.