Madras Medical College


Madras Medical College is a public medical college located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1835, it is one of the oldest medical colleges in India, as well as in Asia.
WWW mmc.tn.gov.in

History

The Government General Hospital was established on 16 November 1647 to treat soldiers of the British East India Company. Madras Medical College was established on 2 February 1835. Mary Scharlieb graduated from Madras Medical College in 1878.
In 1996, when the metropolis of Madras was renamed as Chennai, the name of the college also changed to Chennai Medical College. It was later re-renamed back to the Madras Medical College since the college was known worldwide by the older name.
The foundation stone for the new building of the college was laid by the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. Karunanidhi, on 28 February 2010.
In January 2011, the hospital was renamed as Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.

Red Fort building

A red-brick heritage structure known as the "Red Fort" stands to the east of the MMC buildings. Built in 1897, it has been classified as a Grade I heritage building by the Justice E. Padmanabhan Committee on heritage structures. It housed the anatomy department for several decades, which was partially moved to the new campus of the MMC at the erstwhile Central Prison campus in 2013.
In December 2017, the PWD started the restoration of the heritage structure at a cost of 19.7 million. Once restored, the structure will be converted to a museum, with the ground floor showcasing the history of MMC and the first-floor showcasing specimens for comparative anatomy.

New campus

A new campus with a six-storeyed building for Madras Medical College was built on land covering on the erstwhile central prison premises in 2010 and was completed in 2012. The campus has nearly 1,250 students and 400 faculty and staff members. The campus was built at a cost of 566.3 million and started functioning in 2013.
The old MMC buildings presently house the college of pharmacy, school of nursing and also accommodate students of the recently added courses of audiology, speech learning and pathology, radiotherapy and radio diagnosis.

Affiliation

Since 1857, the college has been affiliated to the University of Madras and all degrees of Health Sciences were awarded by the same until 1988 when the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University Act, 1987 received the assent of the president of India. This affiliating university started functioning from July 1988 and is governed by the said Act.
The college was declared as an independent university called the Madras Medical College and Research Institute. Later the status as an independent university was withdrawn shortly afterwards and the college was affiliated back to the Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, dropping the suffix: "Research Institute" in 2000.

Affiliated institutions

Rankings

In 2025, Madras Medical College, Chennai secured 16th place among medical institutions in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework.
The College was ranked 10th and 78th in India by the National Institutional Ranking Framework in the medical and pharmacy ranking respectively in 2024.

Cultural events

Madras Medical college hosts inter-college cultural extravaganza known as "REVIVALS" and the annual inter-medical sports meet known as "ENCIERRO". Apart from this, it also hosts annual intra college cultural event known by the name " KALAIOMA". GENESIS is the intercollegiate academic conference conducted for undergraduate medical students since 2005. The 17th event of genesis will be held in the month of September 2023.

Administration

The college and hospital are funded and managed by the state government of Tamil Nadu. The head of the institution is the dean followed by the vice-principal.
  • Dean of institution: K.Shantharaman
  • Vice-Principal: J. Sreevidya

Notable people

Alumni

Faculty