In 1953, Dr. T. M. A. Pai founded India's first private medical school, Kasturba Medical College, and five years later the Manipal Institute of Technology was formed. Ramdas Pai took over the management in 1979 after Pai's death. Initially all degrees were awarded by Karnataka University Dharwad and later Mysore University. From 1980 to 1993 they were awarded by Mangalore University. The current organizational structure was formed in 1993, when Manipal Manipal Academy of Higher Education was accorded deemed university status by the University Grants Commission. Manipal Academy of Higher Education is certified as an ISO 14001:2004 organization. In 2007, it rebranded itself as Manipal University. The legal name remained the Manipal Academy of Higher Education. In November 2017 the UGC requested to drop the word "University" from the name and the institute went back to its former name.
Academics
Manipal Academy of Higher Education offers 218 programs in 19 disciplines. The programs are offered in the areas of Allied Health, Architecture, Basic & Advanced Sciences, Communication, Dentistry, Engineering, European Studies & Foreign Languages, Geopolitics & International Relations, Hospitality, Humanities, Information Sciences, Life Sciences, Management, Medicine, Natural Sciences, Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, and Regenerative Medicine. The 2016 acceptance rate of the institute was 4.3% - with 6,500 students getting accepted out of 150,000 applicants.
Rankings
Internationally, Manipal Academy of Higher Education was ranked 701-750 in the QS World University Rankings of 2020. The same rankings ranked it 239 in Asia in 2020 and 120 among BRICS nations in 2019. In India, the National Institutional Ranking Framework ranked Manipal Academy of Higher Education 14th overall and 8th among universities in 2020. NIRF also ranked the Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences seventh in India.
Campuses in Manipal
The campus covers of land and is centered in the university town of Manipal. The campus is divided into the health sciences campus and the MIT campus.
The Innovation Centre was established in 2007, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Manipal Institute of Technology. It primarily focuses on research and entrepreneurship activities, with a few rooms devoted to academic labs and classrooms. In October 2016, G.K. Prabhu, MIT Director announced a major campus expansion plan.
Libraries
Manipal Academy of Higher Education library system comprises six libraries spread across its Medical and Engineering school campuses.
Research
Budgetary provisions are given for research through capital allocations for the maintenance of animal facility, consumables, equipment etc. was sanctioned to the Manipal Institute of Technology in 2008–2009 towards funding innovation. MCOPS, Manipal sends its second-year postgraduate students for collaborative research programmes at R&D centres all over the country. Often the research carried out by them becomes a part of the intellectual property of the company. The Manipal Life Science Centre has a research team and is undertaking several research projects funded by DBT, DST, etc. MLSC is linked to several international research institutions such as Wistar Institute Philadelphia, University of Queensland, and many more.
Manipal Advanced Research Group
The Manipal Advanced Research Group was formed in early 2006 with an aim to grow new research projects in fundamental sciences and promote interdisciplinary cooperation in areas between basic research, biomedical science and engineering.
Notable alumni
Shamsheer Vayalil, an Indian radiologist and businessman. He is the founder, chairman and managing director of VPS Healthcare Group, and the vice chairman and managing director of Amanat Holdings, a healthcare and education investment company
Vinod K Jose: Journalist and Editor of The Caravan
Nag Ashwin, an Indian film director.
Nithya Menen,an Indian actress
Disha Oberoi, popularly known as RJ Disha, is a Radio Jockey from Bangalore, India. She works as RJ in one of the popular radio station Red FM 93.5.
Pradeep Adatrow, American Periodontist and Prosthodontist, Professor of Surgical Prosthodontics at University of Tennessee, Memphis, TN
Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor, Malaysian orthopaedic surgeon and the first Malaysian astronaut
Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Indian politician and Multimillionaire entrepreneur who is currently serving as Member of Parliament in the upper house of the Indian Parliament
