The University's main campus is situated in the Southern Part of Chennai and extends over 100 acres (400,000 m²) adjoining the Adyar River and the Raj Bhavan. The Madras Institute Of Technology at Chrompet constitutes the second campus and extends over 200,000 m²;. The third campus of the University is located at Taramani near the Instronic campus, Adyar. The main component of Anna University is the College of Engineering, Guindy (CEG) which was started as a school of civil engineering in 1794 making it the second oldest engineering college in the world.

The Anna University Amendment Act of 2001 bought almost all Engineering colleges in the state of Tamil Nadu under the University.

Recently, Anna University has been granted 5 STAR status by the National Accreditation Committee. Dr. E. Balaguruswamy is the current Vice-Chancellor of the university.