About 8,000 PG seats in Telangana now open to non-domicile students

OU with 3,000 additional seats likely to attract students from other States

Telangana universities have opened their doors to students from other States this year, increasing the national integration quota from the existing 5% to 20%, thus ensuring cross-cultural atmosphere in the classrooms.

However, students from other States have to write the Common Post Graduate Entrance Test (CPGET) being conducted by the Osmania University (OU) for entry into postgraduate programmes for all State universities in Telangana.

So, for the 41,162 post graduate seats available in the State, officials will create an additional 8,000 seats for students of other States, according to CPGET-2022 convenor I. Panduranga Reddy. Among these, about 3,000 seats are under the OU jurisdiction and are likely to be sought-after given the varsity’s prominence.

Until last year, Mr Reddy said, students from Kerala and Karnataka had shown interest in some courses under the 5% quota but now he expects students from north India would also be keen to explore the courses in OU. “Sciences and professional courses in other streams are generally taken but now with relaxation given in social sciences, we want to attract students from all other States,” he added.

This year, the Telangana universities have relaxed certain conditions and opened up language courses like English, Telugu and also social sciences to all students irrespective of their graduation subject. “Earlier, students had to study one of these subjects at the graduation level to be eligible to pursue it for post graduation,” he said

Regarding the fee structure for the national integration quota students, Mr Reddy said it has not yet been decided but there won’t be much difference between the fee for regular seats and specially-created ones. It is likely to be equivalent to the fee of self-study courses, which is a little higher.

Until a decade and a half ago, courses in Telangana universities were not open to other States. A 5% national integration quota was introduced in 2006. “Now with 20% seats available, it is a great opportunity for non-Telangana students to get into OU, whose brand name matters,” he averred.