University of Madras is a public state university in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. Established in 1857, it is one of the oldest universities in India. The university was incorporated by an act of the Legislative Council of India. It is a collegiate research university and has six campuses in the city: Chepauk, Marina, Guindy, Taramani, Maduravoyal and Chetpet. It offers more than 230 courses under 87 academic departments grouped under 19 schools, covering diverse areas such as sciences, social sciences, humanities, management and medicine along with 109 affiliated colleges and 52 approved research institutions. It is one of the top Universities in India that provide distance education in various disciplines. The National Assessment and Accreditation Council has conferred ''five-star'' accreditation to the university and it has been given the status of ''University with Potential for Excellence'' by the University Grants Commission. University of Madras is the alma mater of two Indian Physics Nobel Laureates, CV Raman and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, five Presidents of India, including A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, and several notable mathematicians including Srinivasa Ramanujan. In 1912 endowments were made to the university to establish departments of Indian History, Archaeology, Comparative Philology and Indian Economics. In that year the university had 17 departments, 30 teachers, and 69 research scholars.