Madras University, Chennai

The University of Madras is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, incorporated on 5 September 1857 by an act of the Legislative Council of India under the British government, modeled on the University of London. It is the alma mater of five Presidents of India, three Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of India, Nobel laureates C.V. Raman and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan, Abel Prize winner S. R. Srinivasa Varadhan, and Turing Award winner Raj Reddy. The university operates six campuses—Chepauk, Marina, Guindy, Taramani, Maduravoyal and Chetpet—offering more than 230 courses under 87 academic departments grouped into 18 schools, covering sciences, social sciences, humanities, management and medicine, with 121 affiliated colleges and 53 approved research institutions. It houses national centres for advanced research in nanotechnology, photonics and neurotoxicity, as well as three Centres of Advanced Study in biophysics, botany, and the Ramanujan Institute for Advanced Study in Mathematics. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council has awarded it a 'five star' and later A++ grade, and the University Grants Commission has designated it a 'University with Potential for Excellence.' Historically, it grew from a public campaign led by Lord Elphinstone in 1839 and has given rise to numerous other universities across South India, including Mysore, Osmania, Andhra, and Annamalai universities.