Madras, University of

Madras, University of 

one of India’s oldest and largest universities. It was founded in 1857. In 1972 the university had faculties of law, education, medicine, engineering, veterinary science, Oriental studies, agriculture, technology, commerce, humanities and fine arts, and science, with divisions of mathematics, statistics, physics, chemistry, biochemistry, inorganic and analytic chemistry, zoology, botany, anthropology, geology and geophysics, and geography. The university included 150 colleges and four nationally important research centers, in plant mycology and pathology, theoretical mathematics, biophysics and crystallography, and philosophy. Its library had more than 210,000 volumes. In 1972 the university had an enrollment of more than 146,000, including 45,000 in preparatory courses, and a faculty of more than 8,000. The language of instruction is English.