University of Madras
The University of Madras is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, 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.
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, CV Raman and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar; several notable mathematicians including Srinivasa Ramanujan and Abel Prize winner S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan; and Turing Award winner Raj Reddy among others.
The University of Madras is a collegiate research university and has six campuses in the city: Chepauk, Marina, Guindy, Taramani, 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, photonics and neurotoxicity. In addition, it has three Centres of Advanced Study in biophysics, botany and the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics.
The National Assessment and Accreditation Council 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 " 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 ' with a focus on drug development and climate change.
History
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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, Osmania University, Andhra University, Annamalai University, Travancore University presently University of Kerala, Sri Venkateswara University, Madurai Kamaraj University, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Anna University, Tamil University, Bharathidasan University, Bharathiar University, Mother Teresa Women's University, Alagappa University, Dr. M.G.R. Medical University, Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Periyar University, Dr. Ambedkar Law University and Thiruvalluvar University.
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 ' on a Mount issuant from the basement a Tiger passant proper ', on a Chief Sable ', a Pale Or ', 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 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.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:| Faculties | Departments / Institutes / Chairs | Campus Location |
| Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science |
| Chepauk and Guindy |
| Chemistry | Guindy | |
| Physics | Guindy | |
| Nano Science and Photonics | Guindy and Taramani | |
| Earth and Atmospheric Science | Guindy | |
| Life Sciences | Guindy | |
| Basic Medical Sciences | Taramani | |
| Economics | Chepauk | |
| Philosophy and Religious Studies | Chepauk and Marina | |
| Historical Studies | Chepauk | |
| Social Sciences | Chepauk | |
| Political and International Studies | Chepauk | |
| Information and Communication Studies | Chepauk | |
| Fine and Performing Arts | Chepauk | |
| English and Foreign Languages | Chepauk | |
| Tamil and other Dravidian Languages | Marina | |
| Sanskrit and other Indian Languages | Marina | |
| Business and Management | Chepauk | |
| Physical Education and Sports | Chetpet |