Sunday July 10, 2011

Spreading its wings

Stories and photos by VANES DEVINDRAN
vanes@thestar.com.my

The Manipal Education group has grown into an established institution with campuses around the world and an alumni of over 70,000 members.

The saying “Every beautiful sculpture started out as a block of marble or a heap of metal” graces one of Manipal Education’s brochures.

While it reflects Manipal’s effort at moulding students’ minds and sculpting careers, it also best describes Manipal’s growth since its inception in 1953.

The brainchild of physician, educationist, banker and philanthropist Dr T.M.A Pai, Manipal first started with the Kasturba Medical College which was India’s first private medical college on the bare hilltop of Manipal in Mangalore.

Students practise among themselves through role playing between bankers and clients at the ICICI Manipal Academy.

Dr Pai’s vision was to give every citizen a chance to become a doctor and subsequently providing other multi-disciplines in hopes of improving the peoples’ lifestyle.

His perseverance and hard work soon paid off and Manipal has since owned a proud tradition of producing some of the world’s most employable graduates and top professionals.

Today, Manipal University, through its campuses in India, Nepal, Dubai, Antigua and Malaysia, has enrolled 23,000 students in over 300 courses in the fields of Health Science, Engineering and Management and has an alumni of over 70,000 members.

It is among the highest recipients of international grants in India and is active in numerous research collaborations.

Malaysia itself has been sending its medical students over to Manipal for some 40 years now and almost 4,000 doctors in Malaysia are Manipal graduates, including the country’s angkasawan Datuk Dr Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor.

This long “friendship” saw Manipal Education spreading its wings in Malaysia with the opening of the Melaka Manipal Medical College in 1997.

And come September, the country will welcome the establishment of Manipal International University (MIU), offering disciplines in engineering and management, and later, commerce, law, animation and more.

Although Manipal Education will “mentor” MIU in the setting up of its programmes, the university will be an autonomous private higher education institute so it could be totally in tune with Malaysia’s vision and requirements.

Recently, a group of journalists from Malaysia visited India to see how Manipal Education has transformed from just a centre of learning for the world to providing an eco-system that is relevant and innovative.

The Manipal Bangalore campus

The tour, which showed Manipal excelling in other disciplines besides Medicine, included both the Bangalore campus and Manipal university town.

Manipal University, Bangalore

This is India’s first corporate-initiated campus for corporate and academic education. The curriculum is aligned with industries to produce “first day-first hour” job ready professionals. The Bangalore campus is home to the ICICI Manipal Academy, which is a collaboration with ICICI Bank – the largest private sector bank in India by market capitalisation – and the Media and Entertainment faculty.

With an emphasis on hands-on learning, part of ICICI Manipal Academy programme includes a simulation learning centre where students work on their banking interaction skills through role-playing between bankers and clients.

In the near future, the Bangalore campus is also going to collaborate with Baroda Bank to set up the Baroda Manipal School of Banking.

As for Media and Entertainment, the faculty has produced professionals who are tied up in projects with DreamWorks Pictures.

DreamWorks Head of International Outreach, Shelley Page, is constantly in touch with the faculty and has dropped in to speak to the students.

The faculty’s graduates have also found employment in Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd and British Aerospace for in-flight design and simulation, to name a few.

T.A. Pai Management Institute (Tapmi), Manipal

This institute provides management education and is on its way to attaining the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB) accredition later this year, making it the first in India to do so.

A high tech equipment to measure luminosity at the Manipal Institute of Technology.

Tapmi is a well-established business and industrial institution in India. The institute is very in-touch with companies and often invites corporate figures to visit and give talks to students.

Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT), Manipal

MIT has since emerged as the largest institute of the university that not only produces world-class engineers but also flourishes in research and development activities in fields such as nanotechnology.

However, what’s interesting is its incorporation of entrepreneurship into its programmes via the Manipal University Technology Business Incubator (Mutbi). It provides services to alumni and current students to start their own ventures.

Mutbi offers services in mentoring, patenting, legal, financial and accounting. The programme has helped establish four companies so far and is in the process of developing six more.

A total of 12 inventions and ideas have been filed for patenting in India and the United States. Some of the product prototypes developed include a software for dieticians, SMS controlled mobile applications and a low-cost water generator.

Mutbi has also secured funds for Technology Development and Incubation including 23mil rupees (RM1.55mil) from the Indian government.

Manipal Centre for Information Science (MCIS), Manipal

MCIS provides higher education in the field of information science and advanced technologies. It has conducted programmes in specialised areas like embedded systems, medical software, embedded wireless technology and IT management.

MCIS provides inter-disciplinary programmes to help students secure employment in multinational corporations.

MCIS has produced top achievers like Gopal Karemore, the only one from India to be selected for a four-year International PhD fellowship programme by the research group “Microsystems and Nanotechnologies for Chemical Analysis” (Minos) in Barcelona, Spain, where he is currently working on metabonomics data analysis for the early detection of diabetes.

Manipal Life Sciences Centre (MLSC), Manipal

MLSC centres itself upon research, education and diagnostic services. With collaborations with universities in the US, the Netherlands and Australia in education and research, the centre offers diagnostic services for over 120 diseases.

Its research interests includes the molecular biology of cancer, clinical genetics, ageing research, pharmacogenomics and regenerative medicine.

Other than academics and research, Manipal is also concerned over its students’ welfare since it believes in providing students with a holistic educational experience.

As such, Manipal recently invested RM50mil to build the Manipal Sports Arena, a five-level sports complex with a state-of-the-art gymnasium and sporting facilities.

Students can even jog indoors on its 200m synthetic track, play basketball or enjoy a game of cricket at the simulation room.

The complex can accommodate 700 people at any one time.

Although many perceive Manipal Education to be only about medicine, it is actually an all-round innovative higher learning institution.

Manipal is able to move with the times and deliver its promise of producing highly trained, employable human capital.

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Sunday July 10, 2011

Spreading its wings

Stories and photos by VANES DEVINDRAN vanes@thestar.com.my

Stories and photos by VANES DEVINDRAN
vanes@thestar.com.my