The Central University of Karnataka (CUK) has been established by an Act of the Parliament (No. 3 of 2009) at Gulbarga, Karnataka. It is one of the 16 new Central Universities established by the Government of India during the UGC XI Plan Period to address to the concerns of ‘equity and access’ and to increase the access to quality higher education by people in less educationally developed districts which have a Graduate Enrolment Ratio of less than the national average of 11%.
The CUK, with its territorial jurisdiction all over Karnataka has been initiated its activities from the academic year beginning August 2009 in keeping with the philosophy of achieving and maintaining the highest levels of academic excellence, sensitivity to equity and access in enrolment and recruitment and emerging as a premier national educational and research institution in the country.
621 acres of land at Kadaganchi Suntanur villages on the Gulbarga-Waghdhari Inter-State Highway in Aland taluka identified by the Karnataka State Government has been handed over to the university, where the work of construction of boundary wall is nearing completion and work on various buildings for the first phase of campus development will begin soon. The university is functioning from its temporary premises at the IInd floor of Karya Soudha, Gulbarga University Campus where the administrative office, classrooms, library, computer lab and other infrastructure is presently located.