Madurai Kamaraj University

University rankings
University rankings
General – India
NIRF (Overall) (2023)	101-150
NIRF (Universities) (2024)	63

Madurai Kamaraj University
Motto	"To Seek Truth Is Knowledge"
Type	Public research university
Established	1966; 58 years ago
Chancellor	Governor of Tamil Nadu
Vice-Chancellor	J. Kumar
Location	Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
Campus	Urban
Website	www.mkuuniversity.org; www.mkudde.org

Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) is a public state university located in Madurai city, in southern Tamil Nadu, India, that was established in 1966. MKU is one of the 15 universities in India with the University with Potential for Excellence status, which was awarded by the University Grants Commission (UGC) in India.^[2] In 2021, the university was awarded an 'A++' grade from the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) in its 4th cycle.^[3]

History

The university was established in the year 1966 as Madurai University. In 1978, the name was changed to Madurai Kamaraj University to honor K. Kamaraj, former Chief Minister of Madras State.^[4]

Rankings

The National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) ranked Madurai Kamaraj University 63rd among universities in India in 2024.^[7]

Academics

There are 121 colleges and institutions under MKU which include 16 aided colleges, 24 autonomous colleges (including both government and self-financed), 4 constituent colleges, 1 MKU college, 5 MKU evening colleges, 57 self-financed colleges and 14 approved institutions. Currently, the university consists of 77 renowned Departments and 20 renowned Schools as a whole.

Vice chancellors

Sl. No.	Name	Period of Service
1	T. P. Meenakshisundaram	01.02.1966 to 18.01.1971
2	Mu. Varadarajan (Dr. Mu.Va)	01.02.1971 to 10.10.1974
3	S. V. Chittibabu	24.02.1975 to 23.02.1978
4	V. C. Kulandaiswamy	31.03.1978 to 02.03.1979
5	V. Sp. Manickam	17.08.1979 to 30.06.1982
6	J. Ramachandran	29.08.1982 to 28.08.1985
7	S. Krishnaswamy	04.10.1985 to 20.11.1988
8	M. Lakshmanan	20.01.1989 to 19.01.1992
9	M. D. K. Kuthalingam	20.01.1992 to 19.01.1995
10	K. Aludiapillai	19.05.1995 to 18.05.1998
11	M. Salihu	24.07.1998 to 23.07.2001
12	P. K. Ponnuswamy	01.02.2002 to 31.01.2005
13	P. Maruthamuthu	07.03.2005 to 06.03.2008
14	R. Karpaga Kumaravel	20.04.2008 to 19.04.2011
15	Kalyani Mathivanan	09.04.2012 to 08.04.2015
16	P. P. Chellathurai	27.05.2017 to June 14, 2018
17	Prof Dr. M. Krishnan	02.01.2019
18	Prof Dr. J. Kumar

Notable alumni and faculties

Samrat Chaudhary Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar State

T. P. Meenakshisundaram, 1st Honorable Vice-Chancellor of MKU and Padma Bhushan awardee
Mu. Varadarajan, 2nd Honorable Vice-Chancellor of MKU and recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award for Tamil literature
V. C. Kulandaiswamy, 4th Honorable Vice-Chancellor of MKU and Padma Bhushan awardee
S. Krishnaswamy, 7th Honorable Vice-Chancellor of MKU and legendary biologist
Arumugam Manthiram, fellow of Royal Society of Chemistry, delivered the 2019 Nobel Lecture in Chemistry on behalf of Chemistry Nobel Laureate John B. Goodenough.^[8]^[9]
A. S. Gnanasambandan, Tamil writer, scholar and literary critic
G. Balasubramanian, former Vice Chancellor of Tamil University, Thanjavur, in Tamil Nadu, India (4 October 2018 – 3 October 2021)
G. S. Venkataraman, Padma Shri awardee
Veerappan Muthukkaruppan, renowned immunologist
Charle, Indian actor
AR Chelliah, Indian religious leader
Dharmakkan Dhanaraj, Indian Old Testament Scholar
R. M. Pitchappan, eminent immunogeneticist
Kunthala Jayaraman, eminent biotechnologist
Kuppamuthu Dharmalingam, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences)^[10]
P. Sathasivam, 40th Chief Justice of India
Rajan Sankaranarayanan, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences) and Infosys Prize winner^[11]
Rajiah Simon, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Physical Sciences)^[11]
Rishikesh Narayanan, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences)^[11]
Ramamirtha Jayaraman, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences)^[11]
Tho. Paramasivan, Tamil anthropologist, writer, folklorist, archeologist and professor
Mohan Raghavan, Malayalam film director
Mushi Santappa, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Chemical Sciences)^[11]
Nirmal Selvamony, Indian scholar and academician
S. A. Choudum, eminent Mathematician and Graph Theorist
S. Kameswaran, renowned ENT surgeon and Padma Shri awardee
H. Raja, eminent politician
Gunasekaran Paramasamy, eminent scientist
Karuppannan Veluthambi, eminent Plant Biotechnologist and Molecular Biologist
Ram Rajasekharan, N-BIOS awardee
Mukul Roy, eminent politician
R. Sankararamakrishnan, N-BIOS awardee
Syed Zahoor Qasim, Padma Bhushan awardee
Kaustuv Sanyal, N-BIOS awardee
K. S. Krishnan, Padma Bhushan awardee, Fellow of the Royal Society and the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Physical Sciences)^[11]
M. K. Chandrashekaran, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences)^[11]
Sonajharia Minz, eminent Adivasi activist and current Vice Chancellor of Sido Kanhu Murmu University
Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Indian Tamil poet, lyricist, orator, politician and writer
Thavamani Jegajothivel Pandian, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences)^[11]
Vijayalakshmi Navaneethakrishnan, Padma Shri awardee
Ganapathy Baskaran, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Physical Sciences)^[11]
Gopi Shankar Madurai, Indian equal rights and Indigenous rights activist
Govindappa Venkataswamy, Padma Shri awardee and founder of Aravind Eye Care System
Vijay Siva, Carnatic music vocalist
Vivek, Indian actor and Padma Shri awardee
Kailasavadivoo Sivan, eminent Indian space scientist and current Secretary (Space) and ex-officio chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) and Space Commission
Kumaravel Somasundaram, N-BIOS awardee
Nazarene Soosai, Roman Catholic Bishop
A. R. Venkatachalapathy, Indian historian
Shiv Nadar, Padma Bhushan awardee and Indian billionaire industrialist and philanthropist
S. Viyalendiran, Sri Lankan-Tamil politician
M. Thiurumalai, Tamil scholar, writer and professor
Sendurai Mani, Indian-American oncologist
Ayyalusamy Ramamoorthy, Robert W. Parry Collegiate Professor of Chemistry and Biophysics at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry.
K.K. Pillay, eminent Indian historian, headed the Department of History in University of Madras and the first President of South Indian History Congress in the premises of the School of Historical Studies, Madurai Kamaraj University
Sankaran Krishnaswamy, eminent computational biologist
Ganapathy Marimuthu, renowned chronobiologist
Shabaana Khader, notable Indian-American microbiologist

Samrat Chaudhary Deputy Chief minister of bihar state

Recipients of Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Prize

Mushi Santappa (Chemical Sciences)
M. K. Chandrashekaran (Biological Sciences)
Ramamirtha Jayaraman (Biological Sciences)
T. J. Pandian (Biological Sciences)
Kuppamuthu Dharmalingam (Biological Sciences)
R. Sankaranarayanan (Biological Sciences)

Other associated people

S. Ramachandran, Padma Bhushan awardee^[12]
Ch. Mohan Rao, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Medical Sciences), Executive Committee member for the Centre of Excellence of the Bioinformatics Centre (founded by Prof. Kappamuthu Dharmalingam), Madurai Kamaraj University, 2004
P.N. Rangarajan, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Medical Sciences) and N-BIOS awardee, Coconvenor of the lecture workshop on Recent Advances in Biotechnology of Health and Disease (BHD-2011) organized by Madurai Kamaraj University in 2011^[13]
Sathees Chukkurumbal Raghavan, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences), Convenor of the lecture workshop on Recent Advances in Biotechnology of Health and Disease (BHD-2011) organized by Madurai Kamaraj University in 2011^[13]
Erwin Bünning, eminent German chronobiologist, invited by M. K. Chandrashekaran to India in 1978, to conduct the Biological Oscillation workshop in Madurai Kamaraj University^[14]
Dorairajan Balasubramanian, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Chemical Sciences),^[11] Padma Shri awardee and member of the advisory committee for 'International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB-2019)' organized by the School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University^[15]
Dipankar Chatterji, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences), Padma Shri awardee and member of the advisory committee for 'International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB-2019)' organized by the School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University^[15]^[11]
Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences), Padma Shri awardee and member of the advisory committee for 'International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB-2019)' organized by the School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University^[15]^[11]
Rakesh Bhatnagar, member of the advisory committee for 'International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB-2019)' organized by the School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University^[15]
Tapas Kumar Kundu, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences), N-BIOS awardee and member of the advisory committee for 'International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB-2019)' organized by the School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University^[15]^[11]
Siddhartha Roy, the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar laureate (for Biological Sciences) and member of the advisory committee for 'International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB-2019)' organized by the School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University^[15]^[11]
Rakesh Mishra, member of the advisory committee for 'International Conference on Genome Biology 2019 (ICGB-2019)' organized by the School of Biological Sciences, Madurai Kamaraj University^[15]
P. Namperumalsamy, Padma Shri awardee and the Co-investigator on a research Project “Clinical and Laboratory Studies on Eales Disease” in collaboration with National Eye Institute, Washington, United States and Indian Council of Medical Research and Madurai Kamaraj University.^[16]