The Annamalai University is a unitary, residential university. It was founded by the munificence of the farsighted and noble hearted philanthropist and patron of letters, the late Hon’ble Dr.Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar of Chettinad, Kt,LL.D.,D.Litt. He started several colleges, and ultimately, the university in 1929. Since the inception, the university has progressively tried to realize the aims of the noble Founder Pro-Chancellor. After him, his illustrious son Padma Bhushan Dr.Rajah Sir Muthiah Chettiar of Chettinad, was the Pro-Chancellor from 1948 to 1984 and he nurtured the growth and development of the university. The present pro-chancellor Dr.M.A.M.Ramaswamy, a philanthropist, is the distinguished son of Dr.Rajah Sir Muthiah Chettiar. The university has had the unique good fortune of having a succession of eminent Vice-Chancellors to guide its destinies. During the last eighty years the university has grown rapidly and has consolidated its position as a unitary and residential university, with forty nine departments of study. The university is located at Annamalai Nagar, which is a full-fledged university town, east of Chidambaram, the abode of Lord Nataraja. The university campus, including the colleges, hostels and playgrounds, occupies an area of about one thousand acres.