South Asian University (SAU) is an international university in New Delhi created collectively by the member states of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation. The idea was proposed at the 13th SAARC Summit in Dhaka in 2005 as a regional centre of excellence that would bring students and scholars from across South Asia into a shared academic institution. Historian and scholar Gowher Rizvi prepared the concept paper, which was considered by SAARC governments before an inter-governmental agreement establishing the university was signed during the 14th SAARC Summit in New Delhi on 4 April 2007. India then created a project office in 2008, with former Jawaharlal Nehru University vice-chancellor G. K. Chadha as chief executive officer. A SAARC Steering Committee and inter-governmental task forces developed the university’s rules, academic structure and business plan. These institutional documents were approved at the 16th SAARC Summit in Thimphu in 2010, and SAU opened to students in August that year. The university initially used facilities provided by Jawaharlal Nehru University and later moved to Akbar Bhawan in Chanakyapuri. It shifted to its own residential campus at Maidan Garhi in January 2023. SAU is postgraduate and research oriented, with teaching designed around regional participation rather than a single national system. Students and faculty are drawn substantially from SAARC countries, and its degrees are recognized in India and across the region. Its academic mission emphasizes cross-border scholarship, shared South Asian perspectives and research in both science and non-science fields. The institution is therefore distinctive not only because of its international legal foundation, but because regional cooperation itself is built into its student body, governance, financing and academic purpose. Operational funding is shared among SAARC member states under agreed arrangements, while India has carried the responsibility for developing the campus, reinforcing the university’s unusual mix of regional ownership and host-country infrastructure support.