Mangaluru: Mangalore University has proposed to introduce a postgraduate course in Tulu and introduce it as an optional subject at the undergraduate level. Registrar (Administration) of the university has issued a notification constituting a seven-member committee for drafting syllabi and regulations. It is headed by Abhaya Kumar, a professor of Kannada.

The Karnataka Tulu Sahitya Academy had written to the university appealing it to offer a Masters degree in Tulu and provide a chance to undergraduate students to study it as one among the three optional subjects at the degree level.Prof. Kumar said that the committee was now collecting subject matters required to frame the syllabi. It would submit the draft syllabi and draft regulations to the university so that the university could offer them from the academic year 2018-19.

President of the academy M. Janaki Brahmavar said that the academy has already written to the government to teach Tulu in PU-level for which the Minister for Primary and Secondary Education has shown positive response. She said in the 2011 census, about 20 lakh people have registered their mother tongue as Tulu. It is estimated that about one crore people spoke Tulu in the world.

The academy said that Kannur University, University of Kerala, Madras University, Mumbai University, Osmania University, Kuppam Dravidian University, University of Tubigen, Germany, and University of Turku, Finland have included Tulu in their academic programmes.