University of Madras

As the Vice Chancellor of this premier university, I am extremely pleased to share this space to converse with all of you. The University of Madras is a post- sesquicentennial institution which has forged a glorious path for itself and has been the site for significant scientific discoveries as well as the beacon for national and regional societal transformation. It has successfully managed to hold aloft its tradition even while keeping up with the emerging trends. One reason for this is the way in which the university has kept alive its interactions with all the stakeholders.

The COVID 19 pandemic has introduced a ‘new normal’ and its impact is felt in the workings of the university as well. The students have been attending the lectures online. While online learning has the advantage of being anytime and anywhere, it has taken away the peer group interaction and peer learning which are integral aspects of the university experience. We look forward to welcoming you to the campus very soon. Meanwhile, our faculty and administration will continue to bring the best to the virtual classrooms. As students, you need to view the restrictions posed by the pandemic as a temporary deterrent. Your focus should be to gain the competencies to conduct application oriented research in order to evolve as useful citizens of our society.

Our university boasts of faculty with a high degree of knowledge and commitment to offer the best in teaching and research. Given the context of the pandemic, we need to redefine our teaching-learning processes to offer the best pedagogic experience to our students. Similarly, the post-pandemic era demands that we hone the employment potential and entrepreneurial capacity of our learners. This necessitates that we focus on sponsored research in cutting edge areas.

Our administrative staff have been the backbone of the university. While we move towards a transparent and complete e-governance model, we need more support from you. When the teaching-learning process at our university – from admission to certification -- is moving into the digital era, your skills and competencies need to keep pace.

At our university, we are gearing up for the final round of NAAC re-accreditation. This has offered us an opportunity to assess our Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges. Further, it has made us more determined to reiterate our quality benchmarks in teaching, research and extension activities. We are aware of this responsibility and fully prepared for it because, our university has always encouraged individual thinking within the established frameworks. This is echoed in the words of Tim Burners Lee, who initiated the World Wide Web: “We are forming cells within a global brain and we are excited that we might start to think collectively. What becomes of us still hangs crucially on how we think individually.” Let us unite to make the educational experience at the University of Madras a synergy of the best minds and best thoughts.

The University of Madras was accredited by NAAC with “Five Star” status in the first cycle in September 2000 and subsequently awarded a score of 86 in the 2nd cycle in March 2007 which is equivalent to “A” Grade. In the 3rd cycle, the University was reaccredited with “A” grade with a CGPA of 3.32 (equal to A+ grade in the revised grading system) in May 2014 with a validity period of 5 years, up to May 2019.

The NAAC issued a Notification (No. 1(1)/2017 dated 16th January and April, 2017) extending the validity of accreditation from 5 years to 7 years for high performing Institutions, that is, HEIs with highest grade in the first three cycles. Accordingly, the validity of NAAC accreditation of the University of Madras was extended up to May 2021. Considering Covid-19 pandemic, the NAAC issued a Notification (F.No.14-29/2022 dated 10th November 2022 and 9th July 2020) extending the validity up to December 2022 provided the Institution submitted the IIQA before December 31, 2022. The University of Madras submitted IIQA in June 2022 and hence the accreditation was valid till the completion of the 4th cycle.

In the 4th cycle, the University has been reaccredited with A++ grade by NAAC and a score 3.59 in August 2023.