About 20 days after starting classes for Masters in Arts in Tulu language, the department for masters in Tulu inaugurated the course.

Dr B A Vivek Rai, former Vice-Chancellor of Karnataka State Open University, after inaugurating the programme said while Tulu comes a long way from being ostracised in academia to having a thesis written about the folk culture, it still needs academic discipline. "This is possible with anthropological studies on Tulu," he said.

The course has received a good response. All 20 seats have been filled, said Naveen HD, lecturer of linguistic and folklore theory for the course. Five courses are being taught at present - Tulu literature, Language (dialects), Folklore (Kambla, etc), research and theory of folklore - and guest lectures will be held soon, he added.