The money has been granted to the University under the 'STARTALK Program' of the US government, which was started by the previous administration of George W Bush, to increase the foreign language proficiency of Americans in Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Persian, Turkish, Swahili and Urdu.

"Our goals are for the participating students to acquire the linguistic and cultural competence to communicate successfully in the language and obtain various learning strategies and skills," said Sungok Hong, a lecturer and Hindi-Urdu language coordinator in the India Studies Program.

"Students will have a deeper understanding of the culture and learn the importance of culturally appropriate behaviour," Sungok said.

Twenty students from the states of Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, California and Hawaii have been accepted for the Hindi and Urdu programme, the university said in a statement.

The free summer intensive programme for Hindi and Urdu provides the equivalent of one semester of university-level instruction.

Between June 22 and July 17, students will meet in 20 hours of classes each week and participate in cultural activities.