Annamalai University

Annamalai University
Motto	With courage and faith
Established	1929
Type	Public
Chancellor	Surjit Singh Barnala
Vice-Chancellor	M. Ramanathan
Location	Annamalai Nagar, Tamil Nadu, India
Campus	Rural
Affiliations	UGC
Website	www.annamalaiuniversity.ac.in

Annamalai University is a Public University located in Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India. The university offers courses of higher education in arts, sciences and engineering.

The university also provides around 380 courses under distance mode. The Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) of Annamalai University aims at offering education to those people who are unable to attend the campus but who desire to study.

History

Annamalai University owes its existence to the philanthropy of Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar. In 1920, he founded Sri Meenakshi College at the temple town of Chidambaram. In 1928, the Annamalai University Act was passed by the Madras State (government) with Sri Meenakshi College forming the nucleus of this unitary and residential university. The seat of this seminary of higher education came to be called Annamalai Nagar after its founder.

Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar donated to the Madras State (government) the sum of Rs.20 lakhs and 1,500 acres (6.1 km²) of land besides the buildings, hostels, library and playgrounds of Sri Meenakshi College, thus paving the way for establishing the university by the Madras Presidency in 1929. The founder was honoured by the Government with the Pro-Chancellorship of the university. He held the Pro-Chancellorship for two decades. It has opened in Canada, Toronto too.

Departments

• Faculty of Arts
• Faculty of Science
• Faculty of Indian Languages
• Faculty of Engineering and Technology
• Faculty of Education
• Faculty of Fine Arts
• Faculty of Agriculture
• Faculty of Marine Sciences
• Faculty of Medicine
• Faculty of Dentistry

Campuses

In 2005, Annamalai University opened a small campus in Toronto, Canada for teaching Indian fine arts. Other overseas centres include the Al Mihad Institute, Dubai and the Al Hilal Education Centre, Sharjah in the United Arab Emirates as well as the Al Noor Education Centre in Muscat, Oman.

Notable alumni

• Ravi Gomatam, Quantum Physicist, director of Bhaktivedanta Institute and Institute for Semantic Information Sciences and Technology, Berkeley, and Mumbai
• Vijaya T. Rajendar, Tamil Actor
• K S Narayanaswamy, Carnatic veena exponent of the Thanjavur style
• Ramanuja Vijayaraghavan, Indian physicist
• V.R. Nedunchezhiyan, former finance minister of Tamil Nadu
• S.D.Somasundaram, former cabinet minister
• K. Ponmudi, former state minister
• Savitha Reddy, dubbing artist in the southern India film industry
• Ere. Elamvazhuthi, Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) from the Cuddalore constituency of Tamil Nadu from 1967 to 1970 representing Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK)
• Narayanasami Sathyamurthy, scientist
• Paramesh, first Tamil record producer and composer in Sri Lanka
• Pazha. Nedumaran, Tamil politician from the state of Tamil Nadu, South India
• V. T. Sambanthan, fifth President of Malaysian Indian Congress and one of the Founding Fathers of Malaysia
• Srinivasan Kalyanaraman, writer
• Bala V. Balachandran, Founder & Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Chennai, India
• T. K. Doraiswamy, poet and novelist
• Vijayalakshmy Subramaniam, Carnatic music vocalist
• G. Balakrish Nair, Indian microbiologist
• A. S. Gnanasambandan, Tamil writer, scholar and literary critic from Tamil Nadu, India
• D. R. Karthikeyan, Indian Police Service oOfficer from Tamil Nadu
• C. Sylendra Babu, Inspector General of North Tamilnadu

References

External links

• Official website