Institutions of India: Osmania University

Osmania University is a collegiate public state university located in University town, Hyderabad, India, and founded in 15th March 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.

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".