EducationEast India Company rule
University of Madras founded
An act of the Legislative Council incorporated the University of Madras, among the first three modern universities in India.
In the wake of Wood's Despatch of 1854, the Legislative Council of India passed an act that incorporated the University of Madras on 5 September 1857. Modelled on the University of London, it examined students and affiliated colleges rather than teaching them directly. Presidency College was among the presidency's institutions brought under its affiliation. Calcutta and Bombay received universities in the same year, and alongside them Madras moulded higher education in the south. Men who took its degrees went on to make up the heart of the educated professional class that later emerged in Madras.
