Anna University was established on 4 September 1978 as a unitary university and named after C.N. Annadurai, a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. It brought together four Chennai institutions: the College of Engineering, Guindy (1794), Alagappa College of Technology (1944), Madras Institute of Technology (1949) and the School of Architecture and Planning (1957). It became an affiliating university for engineering colleges across Tamil Nadu in 2001, returned to unitary status in 2010 and became affiliating again in 2012.
Its main campus covers 189 acres, with the Madras Institute of Technology campus at Chrompet (52 acres) and a campus at Taramani. An undated university profile lists 13 constituent colleges, three regional campuses and 593 affiliated colleges. In its NIRF 2026 data submission the university reported 13,008 undergraduate and postgraduate students and 1,688 PhD students in its own departments.