Students dressed in sherwani at the University College of Arts, c. 1939–1945.B. E. Vijayam addresses students with the arts college in the background, c. 1973.
In 1917, Sir Akbar Hydari, in a memorandum to the Education Minister, emphasized the need to establish a university in Hyderabad with Urdu as the medium of instruction, "as it is the language of the widest currency in India".[12] On April 26, 1917, the Nizam of HyderabadMir Osman Ali Khan issued a firman to establish the Osmania University.[13]
The university began functioning in 1918 in a building adjacent to the Nizam College at Basheerbagh.[14] Arts and theology were the only two faculties offered, and the first batch consisted of 225 students and 25 faculty members.[15]
The government invited Patrick Geddes and Edwin Jasper to set up a permanent campus of the university.[16] Geddes surveyed prospective locations and presented his report in 1923.[13] Jasper drew up the building plans and the Nizam laid the foundation stone for the campus on July 5, 1934.[13] After Jasper left Hyderabad, the state architect Zain Yar Jung supervised the construction of the campus.[17]
Post-Independence (1947-present)
After independence and the accession of Hyderabad State in 1948, the university fell under the purview of the state government. After the election of the first state government, the central government announced plans to convert Osmania University into a central university with Hindi as the medium of instructions. However, this led to protests and with pressure from the Mulki agitation, the plan was dropped.[18] Eventually, English replaced Urdu as the medium of instruction, and the Nizam's crown was also removed from the university seal.
The original seal featured the Nizam's crown as the crest, along with the phrase Noorun Ala Noor. It also contained the hadith, "I am the city of knowledge and Ali is its gate".[20]
The present emblem contains inscriptions in Telugu and Sanskrit. The new logo has the Urdu letter Ain in between.
The university postage stamp released by the government of India on 15 March 1969
The Main campus is a chief intellectual centre in Hyderabad, and its alumni and faculty members include many distinguished individuals, including former Prime Minister of IndiaP. V. Narasimha Rao. Admission to Main campus departments of Genetics, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Engineering, Management, and Law is highly competitive.[22] The state government has appointed Prof S.Ramachandram as vice chancellor of the university. The university is accredited by the NAAC with an 'A+' Grade and conferred with the status of 'University with Potential for Excellence' by the UGC, New Delhi.[23]
The University Colleges are located in begumpet university. There are ten such colleges: the University College of Arts and Social Sciences, University College of Commerce & Business Management, University College of Technology, University College of Engineering, University College of Law, University College of Science, Institute of Advance Study in Education, and PG College of Physical Education. The university offers courses in Humanities, Arts, Sciences, Social Sciences, Law, Engineering, Medicine, Technology, Commerce and Business Management, Information Technology and Oriental Languages. In 2001, Osmania was awarded five-star status by the National Accreditation and Assessment Council (NAAC) of the University Grants Commission, part of the Government of India.[24]
The university has a campus of nearly 1600 acres (6 km2) with 300,000 students (counting all the campuses, constituent affiliated colleges and district centres) making it one of the largest higher education systems in India. Nearly 5000 faculty and staff are employed at Osmania.[25] It attracts students from across the nation as well as from other countries.[26]
Osmania University is a confederation of university colleges, constituent colleges, and affiliated colleges. The constituent colleges of the university include:[29]
The affiliated engineering colleges of the university are mostly scattered throughout the GHMC area and offer various undergraduate and post-graduate engineering courses.[30]
The affiliated engineering colleges include (in no particular order):
Osmania is a non-profit university which is funded and managed by the government. Admissions into the Bachelor of Engineering, Masters and Doctoral programs in main campus is on a merit basis, evaluated by national entrance examinations (EAMCET, GATE, BCFSBTGMES-N&D, TSLAWCET, O.U. PhD Entrance Exam, DOST etc.) for each of the courses offered.
The University Library is the main library of the university and it was founded in 1918 along with the university. It has close to 500,000 books and more than 6000 manuscripts, which includes rare palm leave manuscripts. It also has various journals, government documents, etc. The main library coordinates a library system, which connects the libraries in the entire campus and other constituent college libraries.[32][33][34]
Osmania University has ranked 1201–1400 in the world by the QS World University Rankings of 2023,[35] 401–450 among universities in Asia category by the QS Asia Ranking 2023[36] and ranked on 32 in QS India Ranking in 2020.[42]
The research activities are funded by various autonomous agencies of the government of India. Foreign students are also admitted to the university via UFRO (University Foreign Relations Office) that allots admissions with minimum criteria. Indian students living overseas Non-resident Indian are also admitted through UFRO that are usually ineligible to get admissions via the entrance exams quota.
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