Overview
Manonmaniam Sundaranar University (MSU) is a public university located in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu, India. It was established on 7 September 1990, having been carved out of Madurai Kamaraj University to serve the needs of the people of the three southernmost districts of Tamil Nadu — Tirunelveli, Thoothukudi and Kanyakumari. The university is named after the Tamil scholar and professor Manonmaniam Sundaram Pillai.
The university comprises six constituent colleges, popularly referred to as "Mano colleges", which together host 29 departments offering programmes in arts, languages, sciences, engineering and technology. As of 2025, these constituent colleges teach 2,384 university students.
In addition to its constituent colleges, MSU has 104 affiliated colleges spread across the Kanyakumari, Tenkasi, Thoothukudi and Tirunelveli districts. Among these are six institutions that are more than a century old, including Sarah Tucker College, regarded as the oldest women's college in Southern India. Through its constituent and affiliated network, the university provides education to approximately 130,885 students in person, along with 11,236 students enrolled through its distance education programmes.