University of Madras

The Madras University Senate House and Marina Beach, 1905

Legislative Assembly session of Madras Presidency in Senate House, 1937

A 1957 postal stamp dedicated to the centenary of Madras University

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.[15]

University of Madras Entrance Arch at Chepauk Campus

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."

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 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.

The Senate House

University centenary auditorium

The university is spread over six campuses, namely, 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 in 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 in Chetpet and Maduravoyal campus 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.[16] The university has two constituent college, in Nemmeli and Thiruvottiyur, offerings courses in arts and science.[17] Since 1981, the university has also developed an Institute of Distance Education (IDE), offering various academic and professional programmes approved by Distant Education Bureau under the Choice based credit system (CBCS) pattern.[18]

The library system of the university consists of four central libraries located at its Chepauk, Marina, Guindy and Taramani campus.[19] 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.[20] 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.[21][22] 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.[23] The Government of Tamil Nadu oriental manuscripts library and research centre is located within the main library building at Chepauk.[24] 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.[25] 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.[26]

University of Madras is organized into eighteen main schools, each of which comprises multiple departments and centres as below:[27]

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.[28]

Notable colleges

The Chapel at Loyola College

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

In 2007, the university was given a special grant of ₹100 crores 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 third phase of University with Potential for Excellence (UPE) scheme, under which ₹25 crores were allotted for a period of five years. Earlier, the university was selected for the inaugural phase of the scheme in 2001-02 along with five other universities in the country. The National Centre for Ultrafast Process (NCUFP) of the university has mobilized research grants to the tune ₹7 crores through several funded projects including the DST, CSIR, DRDO and UGC.[29]

The Department of Crystallography and Biophysics was upgraded as a Centre of Advanced Study (CAS) in 2007 and a grant of ₹2.53 crores was given for modernising research laboratories. The School of Life Sciences of the university received a grant of ₹5.24 crores 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.[17] In addition, UGC has identified the Geology and Zoology departments of the university as Centres of Excellence and has allotted ₹3.25 crores each for their development.[36] In 2019, Ministry of Human Resource Development of Government of India granted ₹50 crores to the university for upgrading its research capabilities under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) scheme.[37]

Internationally, Madras University is ranked 555th for 'global research reputation' and 289th in the field of Chemistry by U.S. News & World Report for the year 2020.[38] In India, the National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked it 29th overall[39] and 18th among universities in 2018.[40] A study performed by the NISTADS on the performance of universities in India in 1998–2008 listed Madras University as No. 5 based on publication for that period.[41] The Week-Hansa Research best university survey of 2019 ranked it 11th in the multi-disciplinary university category.[42]

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[43] and S. Chandrasekhar,[44] mathematicians Srinivasa Ramanujan[45] and S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan,[46] leading scientists, Raja Ramanna,[47] Rajagopala Chidambaram,[48] E. C. George Sudarshan,[49] G. N. Ramachandran,[50] V. S. Ramachandran[51] and Alladi Ramakrishnan[52] former presidents[53] Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, V. V. Giri, Neelam Sanjeeva Reddy, R. Venkataraman and A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, politicians Chakravarthi Rajagopalachari,[54] C Subramaniam,[55] CN Annadurai[56] and V. K. Krishna Menon,[57] civil servants T. N. Seshan,[58] Benegal Rama Rau[59] and Y. Venugopal Reddy,[60] Rhodes scholars, Eric Prabhakar[61] and Tanjore R. Anantharaman,[62] pioneers Verghese Kurien,[63] Raj Reddy[64] and M. S. Swaminathan,[65] economist K. N. Raj[66] and C. Rangarajan,[67] business persons Indra Nooyi,[68] Ram Shriram[69] and Prathap C. Reddy,[70] artists and film personality M.G. Ramachandran,[71] K. C. S. Paniker[72] Gemini Ganesan[73] Mani Ratnam,[74] and Mahesh Babu,[75] sports stars Viswanathan Anand,[76] Vijay Amritraj,[77] Ramanathan Krishnan,[78] and Viswanathan Anand[79] among others.

• 
  Physics Nobel laureate, Sir C. V. Raman
• 
  Physics Nobel laureate, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
• 
  Mathematician, Srinivasa Ramanujan
• 
  2nd President of India, Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
• 
  11th President of India, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
• 
  M. S. Swaminathan, Father of green revolution
• 
  Computer scientist, Raj Reddy
• 
  PepsiCo Chairperson, Indra Nooyi
• 
  1st Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat
• 
  Verghese Kurien, Father of white revolution
• 
  Chess grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand
• 
  Telugu superstar, Mahesh Babu
• 
  Cognitive neuroscientist, V. S. Ramachandran

• Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics

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