Anna University Chennai is a public state university located in Tamil Nadu, India. The main campus is in Chennai. After C. N. Annadurai, the previous Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, it was first founded on September 4th, 1978.

It comprises four colleges - The College of Engineering (CEG, Guindy Campus), The Alagappa College of Technology (ACT, Guindy Campus), The Madras Institute of Technology (MIT, Chromepet Campus) and The School of Architecture and Planning (SAP, Guindy Campus).

The first version of University formed in 1978 and various governments repeatedly kept changing the varsity's structure and affiliation scope. In 2001, under the "Anna University Amendment Act of 2001", the erstwhile. It became an affiliating university, taking under its wings all the engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu. This included six government engineering colleges, three government-aided private institutions, and 426 self-financing colleges. The Tamil Nadu government made a decision that resulted in the institution being split into six component universities on February 1st, 2007.

That are:

1. Anna University, Chennai
2. Anna University of Technology, Chennai,
3. Anna University of Technology, Tiruchirappalli,
4. Anna University of Technology, Coimbatore,
5. Anna University of Technology Tirunelveli and
6. Anna University of Technology, Madurai.

In 2010, the institutes received official status. On September 14, 2011, a bill to re-merge the institutions was approved. In August 2012, the merger was complete.

The component institutions reunified in 2011 and 2012 to form a single affiliating university while the four regional universities continue to serve as the university's regional campuses.