Osmania University is named after its founder, Nawab Osman Ali Khan, the seventh Nizam of Hyderabad who rather through a farman or Royal Charter, brought the University into existence in 1918. It is the seventh oldest in the Country and third oldest in South India. Though the need for the University for the Hyderabad State was felt, both by the intelligentia and the people for a long time, the initiative came from a civil servant, Sir Akbar Hydari, who was then the Home Secretary to the State Government.