About Tirunelveli Medical College 

Tirunelveli Medical College (Tamil: திருநெல்வேலி மருத்துவக்கல்லூரி), fondly referred to by its alumni as TVMC, is a government run premier medical institution in South India. The college is under affiliation to the Tamilnadu Dr. MGR Medical University, Chennai, State of Tamilnadu, India and is wholly owned and administered by the Government of the State of Tamil Nadu. The Institute is a medical teaching institution recognized by the Medical Council of India, New Delhi, India and is within the list of Medical Teaching Institutes of the World Health Organisation. The Tirunelveli Medical College is proud of a worldwide alumni referred to by the name Nellaimedicos. The college enshrines the motto – Duty, Dignity and Discipline and is school for 1800 graduate, postgraduate and diploma students from around the country in various medical and paramedical faculties.

The College and its constituent hospital are located in a sprawling campus of 228acres at Highgrounds in the city of Tirunelveli. The college, hospital and the hostels are all located within a radius of 1 kilometre of each other and within 7 kilometres of the city Railway Terminal and Intercity bus station.

Tirunelveli also known as the Oxford of South India is home to a large number of reputed teaching institutions imparting higher education in different streams and a variety of disciplines since the last 100years. Tirunelveli in the tamil vernacular means Tiru – Respected, nel – Rice and veli – fence, a beautiful nomenclature for this world of agrarian opulence. The city and its suburbs nestle on the shadow of the Western Ghats ranges which houses some of the worlds’ rarest fauna and flora. The city has a perennial river “Thamiraparani” and is near the waterfalls at Courtallam syn: Spa of South India.

The Government of Tamilnadu under the leadership of the then Chief Minister of the State of Tamilnadu Shri. C.Kamaraj laid foundations for a new District Head Quarters Hospital on 4th January 1958 which was later opened to public use on 11th December 1961. Further under a legislative direction of the then Chief Minister of the State of Tamilnadu Shri. C.Kamaraj it was decided to establish a new Medical College at Tirunelveli. The Tirunelveli Medical College was inaugurated on 26th September 1965, under affiliation of the University of Madras. A total of 75 students were admitted for the MBBS course for the academic year 1965-66. The college for its inception did not have its own buildings and shared space for their first year of study at the St Xaviers College for Men and Sarah Tucker College for Women in Tirunelveli.

On 3rd October 1966, the students walked into the eastern wing of the present faculty block in the campus and started attending the classes in the Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry. Subsequently, the Western wing was completed and all other para-clinical departments namely Pharmacology, Pathology, Microbiology and Social & Preventive (Community) Medicine became operational.

The college which was initially affiliated to Madurai University, then to the Madurai Kamaraj University consequent to its inception in the year 1967 till the newly formed The Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University took over in 1988.

The college with 75 admissions to start with, increased the graduate admissions to 100 every year since the summer of 1973. Subsequently the institute was granted a full recognition by the Medical Council of India in 1977. The graduate admissions were further increased to 150 a year since 2003 and 250 in 2019. The campus will have 250 MBBS Undergrads , 140 MD/MS residents, 23 DM/MCh residents, 200 Allied Health Science Bachelors , 100 Nursing Diplomas, 150 Allied Health Science Diplomas, 175 Allied Health science certificate students in one academic year. This totals to 1038 new students every year and 3664 student footfalls in the campus.

The college celebrated its Silver Jubilee during 1990 and Golden Jubilee during 2015.

Information compiled from: Tirunelveli Medical College Website