The annual meeting of the Senate of University of Madras (UoM), scheduled to be held on Friday, was suddenly postponed hours before it was convened. It was the first Senate meeting of Tamil Nadu’s oldest university in nearly 18 months.

A communication to the Senate members from the Registrar of UoM stated “the Senate meeting which was scheduled on 28/08/2026 has been postponed due to certain urgent meetings of the authorities”. The revised date will be communicated soon, the letter added.

The postponement has caused consternation among a group of academics at the university, who said that the authorities in question were bureaucratic heads of different departments who happen to be ex-officio members of the Senate. Their absence, they said, should not lead to cancellation of the Senate meeting, especially since it was being convened after so long. The last Senate meeting was held on March 29, 2025.

While the Syndicate had the authority to approve administrative and academic decisions, the Senate was the highest administrative body of the University comprising senior academicians and its stamp of approval over all decisions by the Syndicate was statutorily necessary, said a member. Statutes require the University to hold two Senate meetings every year. The financial estimate of the current year and the revised estimate of the previous fiscal are to be adopted by the Senate each year.

Since the Senate hasn’t met for about a year and a half, the University has been circulating provisional minutes of Senate-in-circulation at the end of each month seeking approval for interim budget “to meet expenditure towards salary, pension, and other obligatory expenses”. For the month of July 2026, the provisional minutes of the Senate-in-circulation circulated to members on July 30 sought approval of ₹22.20 crore to meet the expenses. The members are given a day to respond, failing which the provisional minutes will be deemed to have been confirmed by them.

The absence of a Vice-Chancellor (V-C) for over two years has further added to the woes of the University. Routine administrative matters are being routed through a three-member Convenor Committee officiating in the place of the V-C, which has led to delays.