A new chapter opened for higher education in Nalanda district on Wednesday, October 28, 2026, as former Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar inaugurated the Sardar Patel Memorial College at Udantpuri in Biharsharif — a town that sits in the shadow of one of history's greatest universities.

Kumar also unveiled a statue of the institution's founding principal, Prof. Rajendra Prasad, at the ceremony. In his post on X, Kumar wrote: 'Aaj Nalanda ke Biharsharif sthit Udantpuri mein Sardar Patel Memorial College ka udghaatan kiya. Saath hi sansthapak pracharya Prof. Rajendra Prasad ji ki pratima ka anavaran bhi kiya' — 'Today I inaugurated Sardar Patel Memorial College at Udantpuri in Biharsharif, Nalanda, and also unveiled the statue of founding principal Prof. Rajendra Prasad.'

Nalanda's modern education push meets a national icon's legacy

The college is named after Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's first Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister, whose name has long been attached to institutions across states seeking to honour the architect of national integration. Placing such a memorial in Nalanda — a district synonymous with ancient scholarship, home to the ruins of the legendary Nalanda University — carries obvious resonance: a region once the intellectual capital of the ancient world now adding another brick to its modern academic infrastructure.

The unveiling of Prof. Rajendra Prasad's statue alongside the inauguration is a gesture that grounds the college in its own founding story — a reminder that institutions are built by individuals, not just governments.

Nitish Kumar's long record of education inaugurations across Bihar

For Nitish Kumar, who has served as Bihar's Chief Minister for the better part of two decades, district-level college inaugurations have been a consistent feature of his public schedule. Since the mid-2000s, his administration has steadily expanded higher education infrastructure across the state, often pairing new institutions with tributes to national figures — a pattern that simultaneously delivers local assets and frames Bihar's development within a larger national narrative.

For students in Biharsharif and the surrounding Nalanda region, a new college represents tangible access — fewer hours on a road to a distant campus, a local intellectual community, and, in time, local employment. That quiet arithmetic of access is what makes such inaugurations matter beyond the ribbon-cutting.

Bihar's education landscape still carries significant ground to cover on enrolment and infrastructure. Each new institution, however ceremonial its launch, adds a node to a network the state has been steadily expanding. What fills those classrooms next is the real test.