The University of Madras is a

public In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...

state university A public university, state university, or public college is a university or college that is State ownership, owned by the state or receives significant funding from a government. Whether a national university is considered public varies from o ...

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

(Madras),

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest and most prominent universities in India, incorporated by an act of the Legislative Council of India under the

British government His Majesty's Government, abbreviated to HM Government or otherwise UK Government, is the central government, central executive authority of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

. The university is the alma mater of five Presidents of India, including A. P. J. Abdul Kalam; three Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of India; two Indian physics

Nobel laureates The Nobel Prizes (, ) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make outstanding contributions in th ...

, CV Raman and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar; several notable mathematicians including

Srinivasa Ramanujan Srinivasa Ramanujan Aiyangar (22 December 188726 April 1920) was an Indian mathematician. Often regarded as one of the greatest mathematicians of all time, though he had almost no formal training in pure mathematics, he made substantial con ...

and Abel Prize winner S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan; and

Turing Award The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in the fi ...

winner Raj Reddy among others. The University of Madras is a collegiate

research university A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are "the key sites of Knowledge production modes, knowledge production", along with "intergenerational ...

and has six campuses in the city: Chepauk,

Marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

Guindy Guindy is a neighborhood of Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The Kathipara junction where Anna Salai, Mount-Poonamallee Road, Inner Ring Road, 100 Feet Road or Jawaharlal Nehru Road, and GST Road meet here. It is one of the important nodal points of ...

Taramani Tharamani is an area in the south Indian city of Chennai. It is known for the presence of the city's first IT parks and numerous government educational and research institutions. It is located adjacent to the posh residential area of Adyar an ...

, Maduravoyal and Chetpet. It offers more than 230 courses under 87 academic departments of post-graduate teaching and research grouped under 18 schools, covering diverse areas such as sciences, social sciences, humanities, management and medicine along with 121 affiliated colleges and 53 approved research institutions. The university houses national centres for advanced research in

nanotechnology Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter with at least one dimension sized from 1 to 100 nanometers (nm). At this scale, commonly known as the nanoscale, surface area and quantum mechanical effects become important in describing propertie ...

photonics Photonics is a branch of optics that involves the application of generation, detection, and manipulation of light in the form of photons through emission, transmission, modulation, signal processing, switching, amplification, and sensing. E ...

and neurotoxicity. In addition, it has three ''Centres of Advanced Study'' in

biophysics Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies approaches and methods traditionally used in physics to study biological phenomena. Biophysics covers all scales of biological organization, from molecular to organismic and populations ...

botany Botany, also called plant science, is the branch of natural science and biology studying plants, especially Plant anatomy, their anatomy, Plant taxonomy, taxonomy, and Plant ecology, ecology. A botanist or plant scientist is a scientist who s ...

and the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics. The

National Assessment and Accreditation Council The National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) is a public autonomous body of the government of India that assesses and accredits higher education institutions (HEIs) in India. It is funded by the University Grants Commission and hea ...

has conferred 'five star' accreditation to the university in the first cycle, and subsequently with its highest A++ grade. The University of Madras has been given the status of "university with potential for excellence (UPE)" by the University Grants Commission. Madras University is also recognized among the 18 universities in India having the 'Centre with Potential for Excellence in Particular Area (CPEPA)' with a focus on

drug development Drug development is the process of bringing a new pharmaceutical drug to the market once a lead compound has been identified through the process of drug discovery. It includes preclinical research on microorganisms and animals, filing for regu ...

and

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

History

The first-ever demand for higher education in

Madras Presidency The Madras Presidency or Madras Province, officially called the Presidency of Fort St. George until 1937, was an administrative subdivision (province) of British India and later the Dominion of India. At its greatest extent, the presidency i ...

was given in a public address to Lord John Elphinstone, governor of Madras, signed by 70,000 residents when the

Governor-in-Council The King-in-Council or the Queen-in-Council, depending on the gender of the reigning monarch, is a constitutional term in a number of states. In a general sense, it refers to the monarch exercising executive authority, usually in the form of appr ...

was contemplating "some effective and liberal measures for the establishment of an improved system of national education". This public petition, which was presented by the Advocate General Mr George Norton on 11 November 1839, pressed the need for an English college in the city of Madras. Pursuant to this, Lord Elphinstone evolved a plan for the establishment of a central collegiate institution or a "university". This university had twin departments – a high school for the cultivation of English literature, regional language, philosophy and science, and a college for instruction in the higher branches of literature, philosophy and science. The University Board was constituted in January 1840 with Mr George Norton as its president. This was the precursor of the present Presidency College, Chennai. A systematic educational policy for India was formulated 14 years later by

Wood's despatch Wood's despatch is the informal name for a formal despatch that was sent by Sir Charles Wood, the President of the Board of Control of the British East India Company to Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India. Wood's communique suggested ...

, which pointed out the rationale for "creating a properly articulated system of education from the primary school to the University." The dispatch recommended the establishment in the universities of professorships "for the purposes of the delivery of lectures in various branches of learning including vernacular as well as classical languages". As a result, the University of Madras, organised on the model of the University of London, was incorporated on 5 September 1857 by an act of the Legislative Council of India. The university progressed and expanded through the 19th century to span the whole of

South India South India, also known as Southern India or Peninsular India, is the southern part of the Deccan Peninsula in India encompassing the states of Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana as well as the union territories of ...

, giving birth to universities like Mysore University (1916),

Osmania University Osmania University is a collegiate university, collegiate Public university, public State university (India), state university located in Hyderabad, Telangana, India. Mir Osman Ali Khan, the 7th Nizam of Hyderabad, issued a ''firman'' calling f ...

(1918),

Andhra University Andhra University is a public university located in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. It was established in 1926. It is graded as an A++ institution by NAAC receiving a score of 3.74 on a scale of 4. History King Vikram Deo Verma, the Mah ...

(1926), Annamalai University (1929), Travancore University (1937) presently

University of Kerala University of Kerala (formerly known as University of Travancore) is a state-run public university in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital of Kerala, India. It was established in 1937 by a promulgation of the Maharajah of Travancore, Chithi ...

, Sri Venkateswara University (1954), Madurai Kamaraj University (1966), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (1971), Anna University (1978), Tamil University (1981),

Bharathidasan University Bharathidasan University (BDU) is a university in the city of Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India ...

(1982), Bharathiar University (1982), Mother Teresa Women's University (1984), Alagappa University (1985), Dr. M.G.R. Medical University (1989), Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (1989), Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (1990), Periyar University (1997), Dr. Ambedkar Law University (1996) and Thiruvalluvar University (2002). In 1912 endowments were made to the university to establish departments of Indian History, Archaeology, Comparative Philology and Indian Economics. In that year the university had 17 departments, 30 teachers, and 69 research scholars. Later the research and teaching functions of the university were encouraged by the Sadler Commission and the gains of the university were consolidated by the enactment of the Madras University Act of 1923. About this time, the territorial ambit of the Madras University encompassed from Berhampur of Odisha in the North East, Trivandrum of Kerala in the South West,

Bangalore Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

and

Mangalore Mangaluru (), formerly called Mangalore ( ), is a major industrial port city in the Indian state of Karnataka and on the west coast of India. It is located between the Laccadive Sea and the Western Ghats about west of Bengaluru, the st ...

of Karnataka in the West and

Hyderabad Hyderabad is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River (India), Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India. With an average altitude of , much ...

of Andhra Pradesh in the North. Between 1926 and 1939, the university published the comprehensive '' Tamil Lexicon'' dictionary, which is the first among the dictionaries published in any Indian language.

Coat of arms

University of Madras Entrance Arch at Chepauk Campus

The description of the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of the university, designed in 1857, is:

"Argent ''(silver or white)'' on a Mount issuant from the basement a Tiger passant proper ''(walking and coloured naturally)'', on a Chief Sable ''(black across the top)'', a Pale Or ''(a gold or yellow vertical strip down the centre 1/3 of the top or chief)'', thereon, between two Elephants heads couped of the field, a lotus flower leaved and slipped of the third, together with this motto ''Doctrina Vim Promovet Insitam''".

The coat of arms colours are: the base is light green, the tiger is yellow on a white background, the elephant is grey on a black background, the lotus is a white flower with olive green leaves, on a gold background. The motto scroll is edged red, with black lettering. The English translation of the motto of the University of Madras is: "Learning promotes natural talent."

Campus

The university has six campuses: Chepauk,

, Chetpet and Maduravoyal. The Chepauk campus of the university houses the administrative buildings, the historic Senate House, central library, clock tower, centenary auditorium, and several departments under arts, humanities and social science streams. The schools of oriental and Indian are located at the Marina campus. The Guindy campus incorporates the natural sciences departments while the campus at Taramani houses the school of basic medical sciences. The sports union and the botanical garden are based on Chetpet and Maduravoyal campuses respectively. The Department of Mathematics of the university is operated as the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics located close to the Chepauk campus. The university has two

constituent college A collegiate university is a university where functions are divided between a central administration and a number of constituent colleges. Historically, the first collegiate university was the University of Paris and its first college was the Col ...

, in Nemmeli and Thiruvottiyur, offerings courses in arts and science. Since 1981, the university has also developed an ''Institute of Distance Education'', offering various academic and professional programmes approved by University Grants Commission under the choice-based credit system (CBCS) pattern.

Senate House

The University of Madras has a historical monument – Senate House – which is one of the landmarks of the city of Chennai. Srinivasachari, p 341 The Senate House, the university's first building, inaugurated in the year 1879, is considered a masterpiece of Robert Fellowes Chisholm, an architect of the 19th century, who blended the Indo-Saracenic style with Byzantine and European architectural features. Srinivasachari, Introduction, p xxxi The university renovated the Senate House in 2006.

Faculties, Institutions and Affliated Colleges

Governance

The organisational structure of Madras University consists of the Senate, the Syndicate, the Academic Council, the faculties, the Finance Committee, and the boards of studies. The

Governor of Tamil Nadu The governor of Tamil Nadu is the head of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Governor (India), Governors in India have similar powers and functions at the state level as those of the president of India at the central level. They exist in the Sta ...

is the chancellor of the university. The vice chancellor is the executive head of the university. The registrar of the university, who is the secretary of the Syndicate, is the custodian of all the records and chief administrator of the university. The examinations of the university is managed by Office of the Controller of Examinations.

Faculties and Institutes

University of Madras is organized into eighteen main schools, each of which comprises multiple departments and centres as below:

Affiliated research institutions

* Adyar Cancer Institute * Central Leather Research Institute * Central Institute of Brackish Water Aquaculture * Defence Services Staff College * International Institute of Tamil Studies * Institute for Financial Management and Research * King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research *

Loyola Institute of Business Administration Loyola Institute of Business Administration (LIBA) is a Private school, private business school in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, was founded by the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) in 1979. It is situated on the Loyola College, Chennai, campus and ru ...

* Madras Institute of Development Studies * Madras School of Economics * Madras Diabetes Research Foundation * MS Swaminathan Research Foundation * National Defence College * National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis * ZSI-Marine Biology Regional Centre * National Institute of Technical Teachers Training and Research * National Institute of Epidemiology

Affiliated colleges

The university currently has 121 affiliated colleges, with 3 approved institutions, 5 institutions for diploma and certificate courses, 15 stand alone institutions for professional education, and 53 approved research Institutions as of 2019.

Notable colleges

* Presidency College *

Madras Christian College Madras Christian College (MCC) is a liberal arts and sciences college in Chennai, India. Founded in 1837, MCC is one of Asia's oldest extant colleges. The college is affiliated to the University of Madras but functions as an autonomous institut ...

* Loyola College * Stella Maris College * Women's Christian College * Queen Mary's College * The New College * Madras School of Social Work * Madras Sanskrit College * Ethiraj College * AM Jain College * Guru Nanak College * Vaishnav College * Pachaiyappa's College * SHASUN College * Vaishnav College for Women * Vivekananda College * JBAS College for Women

Academics

Rankings

Internationally, Madras University is ranked 526 overall and 51st global research institution in the

QS World University Rankings The ''QS World University Rankings'' is a portfolio of comparative college and university rankings compiled by Quacquarelli Symonds, a higher education analytics firm. Its first and earliest edition was published in collaboration with '' Times ...

for the year 2024. In India, the

National Institutional Ranking Framework National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) is a ranking methodology released annually by the Ministry of Education, Government of India, to rank institutions of higher education in India. The framework was approved by the former Ministr ...

ranked it 39th among universities in 2024. It was ranked 20th in the Outlook-ICARE university ranking of 2020.

Madras University Library System

The library system of the university consists of four central libraries located at its Chepauk, Marina, Guindy and Taramani campus. Besides, many of the departments and centres have their own library collections. The main university library located at Chepauk was started in 1907 in the Connemara Public Library, later shifted to the existing building in 1936. S. R. Ranganathan (a mathematician) was appointed as the first librarian of the university, whose contribution in the development of the field of library sciences is noteworthy. The library collection includes textbooks, reference books, journals, theses, archives of government gazettes, newsprints, magazines, photographs, rare manuscripts, with a total collection of approximately 1 million volumes, which is among the largest collection of a university library in India. The library system also maintains a database of e-books, digital multimedia resources and subscribed to over four thousand e-journals under the UGC-INFONET Digital Library Consortium. The

Government of Tamil Nadu The Government of Tamil Nadu () is the administrative body responsible for the governance of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Chennai is the capital of the state and houses the state executive, legislature and head of judiciary. Under the Const ...

oriental manuscripts library and research centre is located within the main library building at Chepauk. The library is considered as the treasure house for ancient Indian knowledge. Comprises over 25,373 reference books and 72,714 Sanskrit and Tamil manuscripts written on palm leaf, copper plates, tree barks, leather etc. on subjects, like mathematics, astronomy, ayurveda, architecture, fine arts, grammar and literature. The Library of the Indian Mathematical Society, started in 1907 in Pune, is now housed in the campus of the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics.

Research

In 2007, the university was given a special grant of by the Ministry of Human Resource Development to establish a nanotechnology research centre in commemoration of its sesqui-centenary (150th year) celebration. In 2011, University Grants Commission (UGC) selected the university for its third phase of ''University with Potential for Excellence (UPE)'' scheme, under which were sanctioned for a period of five years. Earlier, the university was selected for the inaugural phase of the scheme in 2001-02 along with JNU, Hyderabad University, Jadavpur University and Pune University. The ''National Centre for Ultrafast Process (NCUFP)'' of the university has mobilized research grants to the tune through several funded projects including the DST, CSIR, DRDO and UGC. The Department of Crystallography and Biophysics was upgraded as a ''Centre of Advanced Study'' in 2007 and a grant of was given for modernising research laboratories. The ''School of Life Sciences'' of the university received a grant of by the Department of Biotechnology, under BUILDER (Boost to University of Interdisciplinary Life Science Departments for Education and Research) for strengthening teaching and research programmes during 2014–2019. A study performed by the NISTADS on the research performance of universities in India during 1998–2008 ranked Madras University at No. 5 based on publication for that period. In addition, UGC has identified the School of Earth Sciences and Department of Zoology as the ''Centres of Excellence'' and has allotted each for their development. In 2019, Ministry of Human Resource Development of Government of India granted to the university for upgrading its research capabilities under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme.

Notable alumni

The University of Madras has a strong alumni network, with its alumni taking over many prestigious positions across the world. Some of the prominent alumni include Nobel laureates C. V. Raman and S. Chandrasekhar, mathematicians

K. S. Chandrasekharan, and S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, leading scientists,

Raja Ramanna Raja Ramanna (28 January 1925 – 24 September 2004) was an Indian nuclear physicist. He was the director of India and weapons of mass destruction, India's nuclear program in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which culminated in Smiling Buddha ...

, Rajagopala Chidambaram, M. Visvesvaraya, E. C. George Sudarshan, G. N. Ramachandran, Govindarajan Padmanaban, V. S. Ramachandran and Alladi Ramakrishnan Former presidents Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, V. V. Giri, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, R. Venkataraman and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, politicians Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari, C Subramaniam, CN Annadurai, and

V. K. Krishna Menon Vengalil Krishnan Krishna Menon (3 May 1896 – 6 October 1974) was an Indian academic, independence activist, politician, lawyer, and statesman. During his time, Menon contributed to the Indian independence movement and India's foreign r ...

, civil servants T. N. Seshan, Benegal Rama Rau, Y. Venugopal Reddy and C. Sylendra Babu Rhodes scholars Eric Prabhakar and Tanjore R. Anantharaman, pioneers Verghese Kurien, Raj Reddy and M. S. Swaminathan, economist K. N. Raj and C. Rangarajan, business persons Indra Nooyi, Ram Shriram and Prathap C. Reddy, artists and film personality M.G. Ramachandran, K. C. S. Paniker, Gemini Ganesan, Mani Ratnam and Mahesh Babu, sports stars Viswanathan Anand,

Vijay Amritraj Vijay Amritraj (; born 14 December 1953) is an Indian sports commentator, actor and retired professional tennis player from Madras. He was awarded the Padma Shri, the government of India's fourth-highest civilian honour, in 1983. In 2022, ...

, Ramanathan Krishnan and Srinivas 'Venkat', and politician Kuniyil Kailashnathan among others. File:Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari.jpg, Last Governor-general of India, C. Rajagopalachari File:Photograph of Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan presented to First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy in 1962.jpg, 2nd President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan File:VV Giri 1974 stamp of India (cropped).jpg, 4th President of India, V.V. Giri File:Neelam Sanjiva Reddy.jpg, 6th President of India, Neelam Sanjiva Reddy File:President Shri R Venkataraman (narendramodiofficial Flickr).jpg, 8th President of India, R Venkataraman File:A. P. J. Abdul Kalam in 2008.jpg, 11th President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam File:R. K. Shanmukham Chetty.jpg, 1st Finance Minister of India, R. K. Shanmukham Chetty File:John Mathai.jpg, 1st Railway Minister and 2nd Finance Minister of India, John Mathai File:General K. M. Cariappa.jpg, 1st Indian Commander-in-chief of the Indian Army, Field Marshal K. M. Cariappa File:Justice M. Patanjali Sastri.jpg, 2nd Chief justice of India, M. Patanjali Sastri File:Vishveshvarayya in his 30's.jpg, 19th Diwan of Mysore and Civil Engineer, Sir. M. Visvesvaraya File:Sir CV Raman.JPG, Nobel laureate in Physics, Sir C. V. Raman File:Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.gif, Nobel laureate in Physics, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar File:Srinivasa Ramanujan - OPC - 1.jpg, Mathematician,

File:Srinivasa Varadhan Heidelberg.JPG, Mathematician, Abel Prize Winner, S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan File:ECG_Sudarshan.jpg, Theoretical Physicist, E. C. George Sudarshan File:Rajagopala Chidambaram.jpg, Nuclear Physicist, Rajagopala Chidambaram File:Photo of Prof Raj Reddy taken in Hyderabad.jpg, Computer scientist, Turing Awardee, Raj Reddy File:Vilayanur S Ramachandran 2011 Shankbone.JPG, Cognitive neuroscientist, V. S. Ramachandran File:Shiv Nadar.png, Founder of HCL, Shiv Nadar File:IndraNooyiDavos2010ver2.jpg, PepsiCo Chairperson, Indra Nooyi File:Verghese Kurien in 2009 (cropped).jpg, Father of White Revolution, Verghese Kurien File:Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan - Kolkata 2013-01-07 2674.JPG, Father of Green Revolution, M. S. Swaminathan File:Palaniappan Chidambaram - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2011.jpg, Former Union Minister of Finance, P. Chidambaram
File:VishyAnand09.jpg, Chess grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand

References

External links

* * * {{Authority control History of Chennai Education in Chennai Universities and colleges established in 1857 Universities in Chennai 1857 establishments in British India