The Tamil Nadu Dr. M.G.R. Medical University is situated in Southern part of the City of Chennai (formerly Madras) in the State of Tamil Nadu, South India. It is about 6 Kms from the Chennai International & National Airport and about 12 Kms from the Chennai Central Railway Station. It is one of the premier Medical Universities named after the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, (late) Hon. Dr. M.G.Ramachandran (M.G.R) and it is the second largest Health Sciences University in India.
The need to have a separate Medical University in Tamilnadu exclusively to deal with medical education and research at Under graduate, Post graduate and Doctoral level was keenly felt for over a period of years and was under consideration of the State Government since 1980. The State Government appointed a High Level Committee consisting of Dr. A. Venugopal, Dr. M. Natarajan and Dr. S. Kameswaran to go into all aspects of establishing a separate Medical University and make suitable recommendations to the State Government.
Apart from modern medicine, the Committee was also requested to examine and suggest improvements to be made in other traditional systems of Indian Medicine viz. Siddha, Ayurveda and Unani. The intension was that the Medical University to be established in Tamil Nadu should bring about co-ordination between various educational and training institutions of modern medicine as well as other Indian Systems of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Pharmacy, etc. and promote research. Based on the report of the Committee, the Medical University was established by the Government of Tamil Nadu.