Govt drops proposal to start separate Urdu university

The state government has decided to drop a proposal for the establishment of a separate university for Urdu, after noticing poor turnout of students for Urdu courses in the state-run universities.

The proposal was mooted by the previous Congress government. The proposed Urdu university, meant to be established in Kalaburagi, was intended to cater the students of Hyderabad Karnataka region.

A decision to this effect was taken in a recent meeting of Karnataka State Council for Higher Education (KSCHE), in which the vice-chancellors of different state-run universities said that it will be a huge burden on the department.

A senior KSCHE official told DH, “The KSCHE had asked for the details of students strength for Urdu courses in different universities. After seeing the poor turnout of students, the meeting unanimously decided to drop the proposal for the establishment of the university.”

The KSCHE had asked all the state-run universities to provide the students’ strength for the Urdu courses last year. Out of 14 state universities, the Urdu courses are offered only in six universities.

According to the documents accessed by DH, Gulbarga University, Kalaburagi, which is in the Hyderabad Karnataka region, has the highest number of student turnout for the Urdu course till the academic year 2016-17.

The Urdu courses are also offered in Bangalore University, University of Mysore, Akkamahadevi Women’s University, Vijayapura, Kuvempu University, Shivamogga and Davangere University.

The MA Urdu course is listed as one among the courses which have least demand in Bangalore University. Out of 54 seats, the university was successful in filling only 14 seats for this academic year.

Confirming the development, Higher Education Minister G T Deve Gowda said, “With this poor response, there is no point in establishing a separate university. This will again be a burden for the government. So, we have decided to strengthen the existing Urdu departments at different universities. The general universities in our state have all the facilities, where students can study till PhD in Urdu. We are not closing down any existing Urdu departments in the state universities. We have asked the vice-chancellors to take the necessary measures to strengthen the departments where the admission is going down every year.”