Manipal University. This is the successor institution of the Manipal Academy of Higher Education (estb. 1942) and the Kasturba Medical College and teaching hospital founded in 1953 by the legendary educationist-entrepreneur Dr. T.M.A Pai (1898-1979), and developed by his successor Dr. Ramdas Pai into India’s first private deemed university, recognised by the Delhi-based University Grants Commission in 1993. Currently Manipal University provides medical and health sciences, communications and business management, and engineering sciences education to 26,325 students from 53 countries mentored by 2,277 faculty spread across three campuses in India. The largest campus is in Manipal, Karnataka spread across 1,000 acres with 6,000,000 sq. ft of built-up area and complete wi-fi connectivity. The other campuses are in Mangalore and Bangalore.
Sikkim Manipal University. Jointly promoted by the state government of Sikkim and MEMG in 1995 with the objective of providing high quality professional education to the student population of the seven sister states of north-east India, SMU, which is spread over two campuses in Gangtok, has quickly established itself as the premier institution for medical and engineering education in the north-east. SMU’s medical college campus hosts a 500-bed teaching hospital which also provides pharmacy, allied health and nursing education to 928 students. Its technology campus provides engineering, business management, applied sciences and twinning programmes with foreign universities to 3,190 students.
Moreover SMU’s for-profit Directorate of Distance Education (DDE) has rapidly established itself as the largest provider of distance education via new information communication technologies. Currently SMU-DDE provides 69 learning programmes to 300,000 students mentored by 2,056 university-based and distributed faculty in the hybrid mode through VSAT technology and its 800 bricks-n-mortar learning centres in 300 cities and towns in India and 15 countries internationally.
Manipal University, Jaipur. Established under a special Act of the state government of Rajasthan in 2011, this new university is being constructed on a 67 acre site in Dehmi Kalan Village, Tehsil Sanganer, Jaipur district. On completion in 2019 the university will provide engineering, medical, hospitality, allied health, business management, commu-nication and jewellery management study programmes to 20,000 students. Last August, the university admitted its first batch of 960 students into undergrad and postgrad programmes.