Kasturba Medical College Manipal

Kasturba Medical College Manipal, widely known as KMC Manipal, is a constituent college of Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) in Udupi district, Karnataka, established in 1953 as India's first self-financing medical college in the private sector.

Snapshot

Programmes offered

Kasturba Medical College, Manipal was founded on 30 June 1953 by Dr T M A Pai, who set out to build a medical school where the cost of training doctors would be shared by the students themselves rather than depending solely on government funding. It became India's first self-financing private medical college.

Teaching began with a pre-clinical section at Manipal while early batches travelled to Wenlock District Hospital in Mangalore for clinical training. Kasturba Hospital opened at Manipal in May 1961 with 150 beds, and the clinical program moved fully to Manipal in 1969, making KMC an independent, full-fledged medical college. Manipal Academy of Higher Education, of which KMC Manipal is now a constituent college, was granted deemed-university status in 1993.

KMC Manipal operates under MAHE's institutional NAAC A++ accreditation (CGPA 3.65 out of 4.0, awarded June 2022) and is recognised by the National Medical Commission. In NIRF's India Rankings 2025, KMC Manipal placed 10th nationally in the Medical category with a score of 68.05, its third consecutive year in the national top 10. The teaching hospital attached to the college, Kasturba Hospital, has grown from its original 150 beds to 2,032 beds today, including a dedicated 280-bed cancer hospital.

The college's MBBS program admits 250 students a year, filled entirely through NEET-UG under the MCC deemed-university quota rather than any state counselling process. Beyond MBBS, KMC Manipal runs MD and MS postgraduate programs across 37 specialties and DM/MCh super-specialty programs across 21 disciplines, along with MSc tracks in areas such as Genetic Counseling and Reproductive and Developmental Biology, plus MD-PhD and MS-PhD integrated options. The college holds recognition from the UK General Medical Council, the Malaysian Medical Council and the Australian Medical Council, and is listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools, which supports graduates pursuing licensing exams such as PLAB or the AMC pathway.

Fees are a major consideration for prospective applicants. Under MAHE's official 2026-27 fee schedule, the MBBS course costs Rs 71,00,500 in total, paid across four yearly installments, before hostel and mess charges. This is markedly higher than government medical colleges, reflecting KMC Manipal's self-financing model. MAHE partly offsets this through merit scholarships tied to NEET All India Rank, including full course-and-hostel-fee waivers for top-ranking entrants under its Kalam-Pai and Freeship schemes.

Nursing and allied health programs on the same Manipal campus, such as BSc Nursing and physiotherapy, are run by separate MAHE constituent colleges (Manipal College of Nursing and Manipal College of Health Professions) rather than by KMC Manipal itself, though students across these colleges share the same 600-acre Health Sciences Campus and hostel system.

Hostel and student life

KMC Manipal students are housed across 3 of MAHE's Manipal hostels, one reserved for first-year MBBS students and two for senior UG and PG students, per the official KMC hostel overview. Hostel stay is mandatory for first-year UG students. Room options for MBBS students run from non-AC double-sharing (about Rs 79,000 a year) to AC double or single rooms for PG residents (up to Rs 1,89,000 a year), and mess membership is compulsory for the first two years, per the official 2026 MAHE prospectus.

Notable alumni

• Devi Shetty: Cardiac surgeon and founder of Narayana Health, one of India's largest hospital chains.
• Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor: Malaysian orthopaedic surgeon who became the first Malaysian astronaut in 2007.
• B M Hegde: Cardiologist and medical educator awarded both the Padma Vibhushan and Padma Bhushan.
• Raghu Ram Pillarisetti: Breast cancer surgeon and Padma Shri recipient known for breast cancer awareness campaigns in India.
• Kishore Mulpuri: Orthopaedic surgeon and professor at the University of British Columbia, and 76th President of the Canadian Orthopaedic Association.

Sources

• https://www.manipal.edu/kmc-manipal/about-kmc.html
• https://www.manipal.edu/kmc-manipal/about-kmc/history.html
• https://www.manipal.edu/kmc-manipal/program-list.html
• https://www.manipal.edu/kmc-manipal/program-list/mbbs.html
• https://www.manipal.edu/kmc-manipal/kmc-experience/hostel-overview.html
• https://www.manipal.edu/kmc-manipal/about-kmc/contact.html
• https://www.manipal.edu/kmc-manipal/about-kmc/NIRF/india-rankings-2025.html
• https://www.nirfindia.org/Rankings/2025/MedicalRanking.html
• https://www.nirfindia.org/nirfpdfcdn/2025/pdf/Medical/IR-D-C-7242.pdf
• https://www.manipal.edu/content/dam/manipal/mu/documents/Admissions/adm2026/2026-27%20General%20Fees%20as%20on%2018-06-2026.pdf
• https://www.manipal.edu/content/dam/manipal/mu/documents/Admissions/adm2026/2026%20Prospectus%20Section%203%20Hostel%20Fees.pdf
• https://www.manipal.edu/mu/news-events/mahe-gets-a---from-national-assessment---accreditation-council.html
• https://www.manipal.edu/eligibility.html
• https://www.manipal.edu/scholarship
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kasturba_Medical_College