Osmania University


Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in University town, Hyderabad, India, and founded in 1918. It was established by and named after Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad. It is the third oldest university in southern India, and the first to be established in the erstwhile Kingdom of Hyderabad. It is the first Indian university to have Urdu as a medium of instruction. As of 2012, the university hosts 3,700 international students from more than 80 nations.
The O.U. is one of the largest university systems in the subcontinent with over 300,000 students on its campuses and affiliated colleges. The Osmania Medical College; was once a part of the O.U. System. However, it is now under the supervision of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences.

History

The Osmania University was brought into existence in 1918 through a firman of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of Hyderabad. The need for a university in Hyderabad State was felt for a long time, and in 1917, Sir Akbar Hydari, in a memorandum to the Education Minister, emphasized the need to establish a university with Urdu as the medium of instruction "as it is the language of the widest currency in India".
After independence and the accession of Hyderabad State in 1948, the university fell under the purview of the state government. English replaced Urdu as the medium of instruction, and the Nizam's crown was also removed from the university seal.

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.”
The present emblem contains inscriptions in Telugu and Hindi. The new logo has the Urdu letter Ain in between.

Main campus

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 India P. V. Narasimha Rao. Admission to Main campus departments of Genetics, Biochemistry, Biotechnology, Chemistry, Engineering, Management, and Law is highly competitive. 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.
The University Colleges are located within the main campus of the university. There are eight 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 of the University Grants Commission, part of the Government of India.
The university has a campus of nearly 1600 acres with 300,000 students making it one of the largest higher education systems in India. Nearly 5000 faculty and staff are employed at Osmania. It attracts students from across the nation as well as from other countries.

Admissions and Research

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 for each of the courses offered. The research activities are funded by various autonomous agencies of the government of India.

Colleges and departments

Constituent colleges

Osmania University is a confederation of university colleges, constituent colleges, and affiliated colleges. The constituent colleges of the university includes:
The affiliated engineering colleges of the university are scattered in Telangana and offer various undergraduate and post-graduate engineering courses.
The affiliated engineering colleges include :
; College of Arts and Social Sciences
; College of Commerce and Business Management
; College of Engineering
; College of Law
; College of Science
; College of Technology
; Institute of Advanced Study in Education
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.

Rankings

Osmania University has ranked on 301-350 among universities in Asia category by the QS Asia Ranking 2020, ranked 141 among the universities in BRICS countries by the QS BRICS Ranking 2019 and ranked on 32 in QS India Ranking in 2020.
The Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked it 801-1000 globally in the 2020 ranking 201-250 in Asia in 2020 and 201-250 among Emerging Economies University Rankings 2020.
The National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked it 29 among universities in 2020.

Notable alumni and faculty

Notable alumni of Osmania University include major politicians of India, including 9th Prime Minister of India P. V. Narasimha Rao and Jaipal Reddy,cabinet minister,16th and last Chief Minister of united Andhra Pradesh with Telangana Nallari Kiran Kumar Reddy, current CEO Adobe systems Shantanu Narayen and senior advocate Subodh Markandeya. Other alumni includes former Indian Cricket team captain Mohammed Azharuddin, cricket commentator Harsha Bhogle, novelist Venkatesh Kulkarni, PDSU founder George Reddy, former Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, former Governor of the Reserve Bank of India Yaga Venugopal Reddy, chemist Garikapati Narahari Sastry, Metallurgist and former Vice Chancellor of Banaras Hindu University Patcha Ramachandra Rao and physicist Raziuddin Siddiqui. Rakesh Sharma, cosmonaut and the first Indian to travel in space, was a graduate of Osmania. Karan Bilimoria, founder of Cobra Beer, Member of the House of Lords, and the seventh Chancellor of the University of Birmingham earned his Bachelor of Commerce degree from Osmania in 1981. Rafi Ahmed, a well-known virologist and immunologist graduated from Osmania University in 1968.
Notable former faculty members of the university include Bhadriraju Krishnamurti, Dravidianist and linguist, and founder of linguistics department at the university, physicist Suri Bhagavantam, and linguist Masud Husain Khan..