The University of Madras was established by an Act of the Legislative Council of India dated September 5, 1857. It had its genesis in what was known as the ‘Magna Carta of English Education in India’, Wood’s Despatch of 1854. Similar institutions were established in Bombay and Calcutta.
The Despatch, a seminal documentation on education in India, recommended several measures to promote and administer education in the country, such as the establishment of a Department of Public Instruction in each Presidency and the establishment of schools and colleges as well as institutions for training teachers. Special emphasis was given for higher education, with the setting up of universities in each of the Presidency Towns being an important point. It was felt that the progress in English education in the preceding few years had indicated that it was time to establish universities that would offer a regular and liberal course of higher education. With the founding of the University of Madras, the High School of Madras, which had been established in 1841 was reconstituted and became the Presidency College.
The early years of the University were primarily as a body for conducting exams and conferring degrees on the successful candidates. The degrees for which candidates were examined included Degrees in Medicine, Law and Engineering besides Degrees in Arts. It functioned in a portion of the Presidency College building, where it continued to remain till 1873 when the Senate House was completed. The first entrance examination, known as the Matriculation, was held in September 1857, where a total of 36 out of 41 candidates who appeared, passed. The first graduates were C.W. Thamotharan Pillai and Vishwanatha Pillai, both from the American Missionary Seminary in Jaffna, who were the only two to take the University’s final BA exams.
By 1881, the number of colleges in the Presidency had grown to 24, of which seven were first grade and the remaining second grade. As the number grew, the University too started making changes in its administrative pattern and increasing the number of degrees in which examinations were conducted. In 1877, private candidates (students who had not pursued classes at a recognised institution) were allowed to take examinations with the consent of the Syndicate. In 1885, a Degree in Teaching was offered for the first time. The rules for affiliation of colleges were made more stringent and the Syndicate was empowered to refuse affiliation to colleges with inadequate infrastructure. The office of the Registrar was made a whole-time one from 1891.
The centenary of the institution was celebrated in a grand manner in January 1957. The events included a grand exhibition in the grounds of the College of Engineering, Guindy, a Science Symposium and a sports meet. A special convocation was held and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was conferred an honorary degree. He also laid the foundation stone of the Centenary building. Several committees were set up to organise the celebrations.
The Publication Committee, under the convenorship of K. Balasubramania Aiyar, noted lawyer, was entrusted with the task of bringing out an account of the growth of the University. Comprising two volumes, it was written by Dr. K.K. Pillay, Professor of Indian History and Archaeology, University of Madras. The first volume, comprising the history of the first hundred years, is an extensive documentation of the progress of the higher education in South India. The second volume comprises sketches of the various colleges affiliated to the University. Along with W.T. Sattianadhan’s History of Education in the Madras Presidency (1894), these volumes constitute a treasure trove of literature on the progress of education in South India.
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