School of English and Foreign Languages was established in 1998 is the part of Madurai Kamaraj University.

The Department of English was established in 1967 under the headship of a British Council Representative with the view to helping the UG students to achieve mastery in communication skills, introducing PG course in English Language and Literature, and encouraging research in all areas. Within a short span of one decade, the Department has produced 300 M. Phil. dissertations. Around 100 Ph.D. theses on British, American and Commonwealth Literatures, Indian writing in English, Comparative Literature and English Language Teaching have been produced. The Department of English Language Studies was started as a wing in the Department of English and Comparative Literature in the year 1989, on account of the growing need for communicative expertise among the students, and to improve their communicative skill. The Department was elevated to the status of a separate department in 1992. The Department of English Language Studies is one of its kind in the whole of India to offer English Language Teaching (ELT) at post-graduate level. The Department of French was started in 1972. It is a full-fledged Department offering Certificate, Diploma and Higher Diploma, post-graduate courses and part-time and full-time Ph.D. programs. The Department is supported by the French Embassy. Every year, a few students are selected by the French Embassy to go to France as Teaching Assistants. The French Government offers Fellowship to the Faculty members. Two specializations are being offered in M.A. from 2008: Translation and French language teaching. The Department has 100% placement.

The department of English Language Studies started functioning as a separate branch of the department of English and comparative Literature.

Many of the meritorious past students have got jobs in varied fields such as publishing companies (Mac Milan, for example), News Paper firms, Polytechnic and Engineering colleges. They have wider opportunities abroad.

VISION

The vision of the School is to achieve excellence in the fields of Literature especially carrying on research in Comparative Literature and Indian Writing in English.

MISSION

Our mission is to graduate well-prepared, qualified and competent Cadres who have the ability to integrate and co-operate with all sectors of the society.

The overall mission of the School is to promote literacy-specifically the ability to read, write and think critically.

This mission includes the fostering of such technologically literary insights and outputs as information retrieval, research, and communication.