BENGALURU: While the existing state-run universities are struggling to sustain due to lack of infrastructure, the state government is mulling setting up an Urdu University at Kalaburagi.
The issue came up for discussion in the recent governing council meeting of Karnataka State Council for Higher Education (KSCHE). At the meeting, data collected from various state universities about the number of admissions for Urdu postgraduate course in last three years was placed.
“Data provided by various varsities shows that there is no demand for Urdu courses both at undergraduate and post graduate levels. However, the government is still considering setting up a university,” an official source from the Higher Education Department said.
According to the documents available with The New Indian Express, the state Higher Education Department prepared a proposal in this regard considering a representation submitted by Hyderabad Karnataka Muslim Jagruti Samithi to former chief minister Siddaramaiah who had forwarded it to the department for necessary action.
The association wants the varsity to come up in Kalaburagi district considering a large number of people belonging to the community in the region.This current academic year, admissions to PG course in Urdu at Bangalore University have been as low as seven. Considering this, the university authorities were even thinking of shutting down the department.
It is no different at University of Mysore. As per the data provided by the varsity, in the last three years, a total of 208 students studied both UG and PG courses. For PG courses, the admission remained just single digit during 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 academic years. During 2014-15, it was five, it was four in 2015-16 and five in 2016-17.