University of Madras

History

The first-ever demand for higher education in Madras Presidency was given in a public address to Lord John Elphinstone, governor of Madras, signed by 70,000 residents when the Governor-in-Council 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, 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, giving birth to universities like Mysore University (1916), Osmania University (1918), Andhra University (1926), Annamalai University (1929), Travancore University (1937) presently University of Kerala, Sri Venkateswara University (1954), Madurai Kamaraj University (1966), Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (1971), Anna University (1978), Tamil University (1981), Bharathidasan University (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 and Mangalore of Karnataka in the West and Hyderabad 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

The description of the coat of arms 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, Marina, Guindy, Taramani, 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, 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. 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. The university renovated the Senate House in 2006.

|File:SenateHouseMadras.jpg|Interior view of the Senate House |File:"an elegant view of University of madras".jpg|Main Library building at Chepauk |File:A. L. Mudaliar.jpg|Statue of the A. L. Mudaliar near Senate House |File:Madras University (3570179547).jpg|View of Clock Tower and Centenary building from Napier Bridge |File:Madras University, Guindy.jpg|New Academic block of the Guindy campus |File:University of Madras campus in Triplicane.jpg|Façade of the Marina campus

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 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
• 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
• 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 for the year 2024. In India, the National Institutional Ranking Framework 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 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.{{cite news | access-date = 30 November 2019}}

Notable alumni

Some prominent alumni include Nobel laureates C. V. Raman and S. Chandrasekhar, mathematicians Srinivasa Ramanujan K. S. Chandrasekharan, and S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, leading scientists, Raja Ramanna, 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, 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, curator Deepa Subramanian, K. C. S. Paniker, Gemini Ganesan, Mani Ratnam and Mahesh Babu, sports stars Viswanathan Anand, Vijay Amritraj, 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:Srinivasa Ramanujan-Add. MS a94 version2 (cropped).jpg|Mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan File:Sir CV Raman.JPG|Nobel laureate in Physics, Sir C. V. Raman File:Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.jpg|Nobel laureate in Physics, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

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