Government Brennen College

Brennen College is an educational institution in Kerala, affiliated to the Kannur University. It is located in Dharmadam, Thalassery of Kerala state, India. The college evolved from a school established by the English philanthropist Edward Brennen, master attendant of the Thalassery Port, who had made Thalassery his home. The college was granted special heritage status by the University Grants Commission in 2016 with an aim of conserving college which is more than 125 years old. The college secured 97th position in NIRF all India ranking.

History
Government Brennen College developed out of the free school established in 1862 by Edward Brennen, a master attendant of Tellicherry Port. It was elevated to the status of a II Grade College with F.A. Classes in 1890 under the University of Madras. The institution became a first-grade College in 1947, and it was shifted to the new building at Darmadam in 1958.

Campus
The Brennen College campus is situated in Dharmadam Panchayath on a hillock just 5 km north of Thalassery town and 1 km away from Kannur-Thalassery National Highway. The campus has 34.5 acre of land housing the academic departments, administrative office, central library, student hostels, staff quarters, and play ground.

Brennen Library
Brennen college has a Central Library with about 21600 books which contained many vary rare and otherwise not available Malayalam books printed during the nineteenth century mainly at Basel Mission Press, Mangalore. The library has prepared an electronic catalogue of these Malayalam publication in 2004. It is the first electronic catalogue in any Indian language with search mechanism in the local script. The library is a unique source for reference for regional studies.

Departments
The college has 21 departments:
 * Arts
 * Arabic
 * Economics
 * English
 * Hindi
 * History
 * Islamic History
 * Journalism
 * Malayalam
 * Philosophy
 * Political Science
 * Psychology
 * Sanskrit
 * Urdu
 * Science
 * Botany
 * Chemistry
 * Mathematics
 * Physics
 * Statistics
 * Zoology
 * Commerce
 * Physical Education

Notable alumni

 * A. K. Gopalan, Communist veteran leader, Ex-Member of Parliament
 * Pinarayi Vijayan, Politician and current Chief Minister of Kerala
 * K K Ramachandran Master, Former Minister, Government of Kerala
 * K Sudhakaran, KPCC President And MP
 * P. Sathidevi, Ex Parliament Member
 * V. Muraleedharan, politician and current Union Minister
 * Akbar Kakkattil, writer
 * A. K. Balan, Former Minister of Law Government of Kerala
 * A. K. Premajam, politician and parliamentarian
 * V. Unnikrishnan Nair, Poet
 * A. N. Shamseer, Honorable Speaker, Kerala Legislative Assembly
 * E. Ahamed, Former union minister and longest term served MP in kerala
 * James Mathew, Former MLA, politician
 * Thayat Sankaran, writer and politician
 * K. Thayat, writer
 * N. Prabhakaran, writer
 * Punathil Kunjabdulla, writer
 * Rajan Gurukkal, historian
 * Shihabuddin Poythumkadavu, writer
 * Vazhakkulangarayil Khalid, former Supreme Court justice and acting Governor of Kashmir
 * V. R. Sudheesh, writer
 * C. A. Bhavani Devi, sabre fencer