Manipal University (MAHE) 2026 — Complete Hub for Courses, Fees & Admissions

Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) — popularly known as Manipal University — is a Deemed-to-be-University in Karnataka with Institution of Eminence (IoE) status, NAAC A++ (CGPA 3.65), and NIRF #14 Overall. Established in 1953, MAHE includes 30+ institutions across multiple campuses — MIT Manipal (engineering), KMC Manipal (medical), KMC Mangalore, and more.

Manipal University Top Programmes 2026

Manipal University Fees 2026 (Indicative)

📌 In one line: fee structure — confirm the current-year official circular before payment.

Manipal University Rankings 2025

• NIRF Overall: #14 (Universities)
• NIRF Medical (KMC Manipal): #10
• NIRF Engineering (MIT Manipal): #59
• NIRF Dental: #16 · Pharmacy: #25 · Management: #46
• NAAC: A++ (CGPA 3.65)
• Status: Institution of Eminence (IoE), UGC Category-I
• QS Asia: Top 200

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About Manipal: A Century of Higher Education Excellence

Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), commonly known as Manipal University, traces its origins to the foundation of Kasturba Medical College in 1953 by the visionary educationist Dr T M A Pai. From a single medical institution, the Manipal ecosystem has grown over seven decades into India's most diversified private higher-education group, encompassing four major Indian campuses (Manipal in Karnataka, Mangalore in Karnataka, Jaipur in Rajasthan, and Sikkim), an overseas campus in Dubai (Manipal Academy of Higher Education-Dubai), as well as branch campuses in Bengaluru, and academic partnerships in Malaysia, Antigua, and Nepal. The combined enrolment across MAHE constituent institutions exceeds 35,000 students from 60+ countries.

Manipal Academy of Higher Education is recognised as an Institution of Eminence by the Government of India — a status awarded in 2018 to a select group of public and private universities to give them greater autonomy in academic decisions, financial planning, and international tie-ups. MAHE is also accredited with the highest NAAC grade of A++ (CGPA 3.69 in the most recent assessment cycle), and several Manipal constituent colleges hold individual NABH, NAAC, or programme-specific accreditations from international bodies including ABET (USA) for select engineering programmes and the General Medical Council (UK) recognition for the Manipal medical degree.

In the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) 2024, Manipal Academy of Higher Education was ranked 7 in the Universities category and 14 in the Overall category. Kasturba Medical College, Manipal was ranked 18 in the Medical category, the Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences was ranked 14 in Pharmacy, and the Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) was ranked 41 in Engineering. These rankings place MAHE consistently among the top private higher-education institutions in India.

Manipal Campuses and Constituent Institutions

The principal Manipal University campuses and their distinguishing strengths:

• Manipal (Karnataka) — Flagship Campus: The original Manipal township established 1953 along the Western Ghats coastline. Houses Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) for engineering, Kasturba Medical College (KMC), Manipal College of Dental Sciences (MCODS), Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences (MCOPS), Manipal College of Nursing, T A Pai Management Institute (TAPMI Manipal subsidiary), Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration (WGSHA), Manipal Institute of Communication (MIC), Manipal Institute of Virology, and dozens of other constituent institutes.
• Manipal University Jaipur (MUJ): Established 2011. 122-acre campus on the Ajmer Road outskirts of Jaipur. Strong programmes in Engineering, Management, Design, and Liberal Arts.
• Sikkim Manipal University (SMU) — Gangtok: Established 1995 as the first private university in northeast India. Strong programmes in Medical Sciences, Engineering, Hospitality, and Distance Learning.
• Manipal University College Mangalore (formerly Manipal Mangalore Medical College): Coastal campus near Mangalore offering medical, dental, and nursing programmes.
• Manipal Academy of Higher Education-Dubai: International branch campus established 2000 in Dubai International Academic City. Offers engineering, management, communication, biotechnology, and architecture programmes.

Manipal Programmes and Departments

Manipal University offers more than 350 undergraduate and postgraduate programmes across health sciences, engineering, management, design, hospitality, allied sciences, and liberal arts. Marquee programmes include:

• MBBS: 5.5-year medical programme at Kasturba Medical College, Manipal and at MAHE-Mangalore. KMC Manipal is among the most prestigious private medical colleges in India, with 250 MBBS seats annually (split between Manipal and Mangalore).
• BDS: 5-year dental programme at Manipal College of Dental Sciences (Manipal and Mangalore).
• B.Tech (4 years): Computer Science and Engineering, CSE (AI&ML), CSE (Data Science), CSE (Cybersecurity), Electronics and Communication, Electronics and Instrumentation, Electrical and Electronics, Mechanical, Mechatronics, Automotive, Aerospace, Civil, Chemical, Biotechnology, Information Technology, Industrial & Production, Robotics, Computer & Communication Engineering. Available at MIT Manipal and Manipal University Jaipur.
• BBA (3 years), BBA International Business, BBA Family Business and Entrepreneurship: Through Manipal Institute of Management (MIM) and the TAPMI undergraduate programmes.
• B.Des and B.Arch: Through Manipal School of Architecture and Planning, and the Manipal School of Design.
• BPharm and PharmD: Through Manipal College of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
• BHA (Hotel Administration): Through Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration (WGSHA), one of the oldest hotel-management programmes in India established in collaboration with ITC.
• BA Mass Communication, BA Journalism, BA Liberal Arts: Through Manipal Institute of Communication.
• Allied Health Sciences: B.Sc Nursing, B.Sc Physiotherapy, B.Sc Medical Imaging Technology, B.Sc Optometry, B.Sc Speech and Hearing, B.Sc Medical Laboratory Technology, B.Sc Cardiac Care Technology, and several other clinical and paramedical programmes.

Manipal Entrance Examination (MET) 2026

Admission to MAHE undergraduate programmes (excluding MBBS, BDS, and BPharm which are based on NEET) is conducted through the Manipal Entrance Test (MET), an annual online entrance examination. MET 2026 pattern:

• Duration: 2 hours 30 minutes for engineering programmes.
• Format: Online/computer-based at 100+ test cities across India and select international centres.
• Sections: Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics or Biology (track-dependent), and English/General Aptitude.
• Marking: 200 questions, 4 marks per correct, 1 mark deducted per incorrect answer.
• Slots: Conducted across 3-5 sessions over a 7-10 day window, allowing candidates to choose convenient slots.

For MBBS and BDS programmes, admission is based on NEET-UG rank and is conducted through the Karnataka counselling process (for MAHE Manipal seats) or directly through MAHE for the management-quota seats. For BPharm, admission is based on JEE Main Paper-1 or MET-Pharm depending on the year. For MBA programmes at TAPMI Manipal, admission is through CAT/XAT/GMAT scores followed by personal-interview rounds.

Manipal University MET Cutoff — Closing Ranks by Year

Manipal University (MIT Manipal) MET Cutoff 2024 — Closing Ranks

Indicative MET 2024 closing ranks for the most-popular Manipal Institute of Technology (Manipal) programmes. For the counselling process and rank-vs-branch strategy, see our JEE counselling guide, and compare the detailed MIT Manipal cutoff page:

📌 In one line: official closing data — year/category labeled; verify the current round on the official portal.

Comparing private peers? See the VIT Vellore cutoff and BITS Pilani cutoff pages for branch-wise closing ranks alongside Manipal.

Manipal Fee Structure 2026-27

Manipal University fees vary by programme, campus, and category. Indicative per-year tuition fees for the 2026-27 admission cycle:

• MBBS (KMC Manipal): Rs 17.62 lakh per year (4.5 years preclinical + 1-year internship). Total MBBS programme cost approximately Rs 79 lakh across the 5.5-year programme.
• BDS (MCODS Manipal): Rs 11.30 lakh per year (5-year programme). Total approximately Rs 56.5 lakh.
• B.Tech CSE / CSE specialisations (MIT Manipal): Rs 4.32 lakh per year (4-year total Rs 17.28 lakh).
• B.Tech other branches (Mechanical, Civil, ECE, EEE, etc.): Rs 3.60-3.95 lakh per year.
• B.Tech (Manipal University Jaipur): Rs 3.40-3.95 lakh per year for CSE, lower for other branches.
• BBA (Manipal Institute of Management): Rs 3.20-3.65 lakh per year.
• B.Pharm (MCOPS): Rs 3.80 lakh per year (4-year total).
• BHA (WGSHA): Rs 4.65 lakh per year.
• B.Sc Nursing (Manipal College of Nursing): Rs 2.55 lakh per year.

Hostel accommodation is mandatory for first-year students at MIT Manipal and at most other Manipal constituent colleges. Hostel charges range from Rs 1.85 lakh per year (twin-sharing AC) to Rs 2.95 lakh per year (single-occupancy premium). Mess charges are additional and average Rs 60,000-80,000 per year. Manipal also operates a robust scholarship pool through the Dr T M A Pai Memorial Scholarship, the WGSHA Hotel Industry Scholarship, and merit-based scholarships for top MET, JEE Main, and NEET scorers.

Manipal Placements 2024-25

Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) Manipal reports placement participation in the 85-95% range across its B.Tech branches. Reported figures for the 2024-25 placement cycle at MIT Manipal:

• Total recruiters: 600+ companies participated in the campus-placement drives.
• Number of offers: Over 2,800 offers extended to the eligible B.Tech batch.
• Average CTC across B.Tech: Rs 9.5-10.5 LPA depending on branch.
• Average CTC for B.Tech CSE / CSE specialisations: Rs 13-15 LPA.
• Highest domestic CTC: Rs 1.46 crore offered by a leading product-tech recruiter.
• Highest international CTC: USD 200,000+ from a US-based product company.
• Top recruiters: Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Adobe, Cisco, Walmart Global Tech, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bain Capability Centre, Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC, Accenture, IBM, Oracle, Salesforce, SAP Labs, Bosch, Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki, L&T, ITC, HUL, Aditya Birla Group, and many others.
• KMC Manipal MBBS: Most graduates pursue PG entrance examinations (NEET-PG, INI-CET) for specialisation; significant cohort pursues USMLE for US residency pathways. KMC MBBS graduates have one of the highest USMLE pass-rate records among Indian medical colleges.
• TAPMI Manipal MBA: Average CTC Rs 16-18 LPA, highest Rs 32-35 LPA.
• WGSHA BHA: Top recruiters include all major Indian and international hotel groups — Taj, ITC, Oberoi, Marriott, Hyatt, Hilton, Accor, Four Seasons. Average CTC Rs 4.5-6.5 LPA at entry level with rapid career progression in the hospitality industry.

Campus Life at Manipal: The University Town

Unlike most Indian universities that exist as enclaves within larger cities, Manipal is structured as a university town — the entire 600+ acre Manipal township was developed around the academic institutions. This unique structure creates an immersive student experience where every shop, restaurant, bookstore, recreational facility, and infrastructure asset in the town is oriented around student life. The famous Tiger Circle, End Point view, Manipal Lake, Hanuman Vana, KMC Greens cricket ground, and the multiplex theatres become natural extensions of student life beyond academic blocks.

The annual student festivals at MIT Manipal include Revels (the international cultural and sports festival held in February-March, attracting over 50,000 footfall across 4 days), Utsav (the technical and innovation festival held in October), and MIT TechTatva (the engineering-themed competition platform). Active student clubs span robotics (the IEEE chapter and Robocon-winning teams), Formula racing (Manipal Racing won India's first Formula Student Combustion championship at FS UK), space technology (the Manipal Space Engineering team works on student satellite projects), drama, music (the Manipal University Choir has performed internationally), photography, film, and dozens of special-interest groups.

Research and Innovation at Manipal

Manipal Academy of Higher Education hosts more than 65 research centres across health sciences, engineering, life sciences, and management. Notable centres include the Manipal McGill Centre for Infectious Diseases (a collaboration with McGill University Canada), the Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences, the Manipal Institute of Regenerative Medicine, the Manipal Centre for Information Sciences, the Centre for Health Informatics, the Sir Madhava Rao Memorial Centre for Healthcare Quality, and the Manipal Centre for European Studies. Faculty research grants exceed Rs 200 crore annually from Indian and international agencies including ICMR, DST, DBT, NIH USA, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust, and various European research councils.

The Manipal Universal Learning (MUSE) digital library system provides access to over 300,000 print and digital resources, and Manipal has been a charter institution of the Springer Nature Open Research initiative supporting open-access publication for faculty research. The Manipal Centre for Information Sciences operates AI/ML labs with GPU clusters and quantum-computing simulation labs.

Manipal International Programmes and Global Tie-Ups

Manipal Academy of Higher Education has more than 250 international partnerships across student exchange, semester-abroad, dual-degree, and faculty-exchange formats. Strategic partnerships include collaborations with Carnegie Mellon University (USA), Purdue University (USA), Virginia Commonwealth University (USA), University of Queensland (Australia), University of Sydney (Australia), Politecnico di Milano (Italy), Karolinska Institute (Sweden), University of Helsinki (Finland), and Yonsei University (South Korea).

Manipal also operates a structured "Twinning Programme" that allows engineering students to spend two years at Manipal followed by two years at partner US/Australian universities, graduating with a degree from the international partner institution. This pathway is particularly popular among students with strong academic profiles who target US graduate-school admissions after completing their undergraduate degree.

How to Apply to Manipal 2026-27

The complete application cycle for B.Tech admission to Manipal University 2026-27 follows this timeline:

• November 2025: MET 2026 application portal opens at manipal.edu. Application fee Rs 1,500.
• April 2026: MET 2026 application window closes.
• May 2026: MET 2026 examination held across multiple slots over 7-10 days.
• Late May 2026: MET results declared. All-India rank assigned.
• June 2026: Online counselling commences. Candidates choose campus + branch combinations based on rank.
• June-July 2026: Multiple counselling rounds. Admission offers issued, fee payment confirmed.
• August 2026: Orientation week and programme commencement.

For MBBS at KMC Manipal, candidates must clear NEET-UG 2026 (typically held in early May) and apply through the Karnataka state counselling process for state-quota seats and through MAHE directly for management-quota seats. The cut-off NEET-UG percentile for KMC Manipal management-quota MBBS is typically 99.0-99.5+ percentile.

Why Choose Manipal: Strengths and Trade-Offs

Manipal Academy of Higher Education is the right choice for candidates who value (a) a multi-discipline university experience with strong programmes across medicine, engineering, management, and design under a single university umbrella; (b) the unique "university town" student-life experience at Manipal; (c) the Institution of Eminence designation which carries genuine academic and operational autonomy; (d) the strong placement infrastructure across all major MIT branches; and (e) the international tie-ups enabling structured pathways to overseas graduate education.

The trade-offs to weigh: as a private university, fees are substantially higher than central or state-government engineering/medical alternatives. For students who clear JEE Advanced for an IIT seat or NEET cutoffs for AIIMS/government medical college admissions, those public-system pathways remain more cost-effective. For candidates who don't clear the public-system entrance cutoffs but want a high-quality residential undergraduate experience with strong placement outcomes — Manipal is among the top three private alternatives in India alongside VIT and BITS Pilani.

Manipal Alumni Network: Spanning Healthcare, Tech, and Hospitality

The Manipal alumni network — affectionately known as the Manipalites — has grown to over 250,000 graduates worldwide spanning seven decades since Kasturba Medical College was established in 1953. The KMC Manipal alumni are particularly distinguished in clinical practice, holding senior consultant positions across leading Indian hospitals (Apollo, Fortis, Manipal Hospitals, AIIMS faculty, PGIMER faculty, JIPMER faculty) and working as practising physicians, surgeons, and medical researchers across the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and the Middle East. The Manipal Institute of Technology alumni are spread across the global technology industry with strong representation at Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Apple, Meta, Adobe, Cisco, and dozens of unicorn-status Indian startups including founders of multiple companies in the AI/ML, fintech, and consumer-internet verticals.

The Manipal Global Alumni Association coordinates regional chapter activities in 50+ cities worldwide including alumni meetups, mentorship programmes for current students, fundraising for the Manipal Endowment Fund (which supports need-based scholarships for incoming students), and the annual Manipal Global Alumni Conclave held on the Manipal campus each December. WGSHA alumni hold General Manager and CEO positions across virtually every major Indian and international hotel brand, making the WGSHA network among the most connected hospitality-industry alumni groups globally.

FindUrCollege Manipal Admission Support

FindUrCollege has supported over 350 students into Manipal University campuses across MBBS, BDS, B.Tech, BBA, BHA, BPharm, B.Des, and B.Sc Nursing programmes during the past five admission cycles. Our admission counsellors provide programme-specific guidance covering MET test-preparation strategy, NEET-UG counselling support for KMC Manipal MBBS aspirants, scholarship-eligibility assessments, campus-comparison advisory (MIT Manipal vs Manipal University Jaipur vs Manipal Dubai), branch-vs-rank optimisation, and end-to-end documentation support for the entire Manipal application process.

For 2026-27 admissions, we strongly recommend beginning MET preparation by August-September 2025 (8 months before the May 2026 exam) and completing 30+ full-length mock tests by April 2026. For MBBS aspirants targeting KMC Manipal, the recommended NEET-UG target is 99.0+ percentile, which requires beginning focused preparation in Class 11 itself. Talk to our counsellors via the lead form on this page for a free 30-minute admission roadmap session with a Manipal-alumni mentor who can guide you on programme choice, campus selection, financial planning, and post-Manipal career trajectory considerations.

Sports and Wellness at Manipal

Manipal places strong emphasis on sports and wellness as integral components of student development. The Manipal campus houses an Olympic-standard swimming pool, an outdoor athletics track (used for the annual MIT Sports Carnival), multiple football grounds (one of which is FIFA-standard turf), basketball and volleyball courts, badminton and squash halls, table tennis arenas, an indoor gymnasium, and the iconic KMC Greens cricket ground that has hosted Ranji Trophy matches. Manipal teams compete actively in inter-university sports competitions, with the Manipal Cricket team, Football team, Basketball team, and Athletics team consistently ranking among the top private-university teams in the Karnataka inter-university circuit.

The Manipal Centre for Sports Excellence provides full-time coaching across athletics, swimming, badminton, table tennis, basketball, cricket, football, and martial-arts disciplines. Sports-quota admissions are available for state-level and national-level athletes meeting the criteria, with associated fee waivers and hostel-allocation preferences. The Manipal Yoga Centre operates daily morning and evening yoga and meditation classes for the entire student community, complementing the formal sports curriculum with traditional Indian wellness practices.

Manipal Online Education and Lifelong Learning

Manipal University also operates Online Manipal — the UGC-recognised online education arm of Manipal Academy of Higher Education — offering fully-accredited online degree programmes including online BBA, online BCA, online MBA, online MCA, and online M.Sc programmes in Data Science, Cyber Security, Business Analytics, and Project Management. Online Manipal programmes are delivered via a state-of-the-art learning management system with live virtual classes, recorded lectures, interactive assignments, and proctored online examinations. The online MBA at Online Manipal has been ranked among the top 50 online MBAs globally in QS Online MBA Rankings, making it one of the few Indian online MBA programmes with international ranking recognition. Tuition fees for Online Manipal programmes are a fraction of the equivalent on-campus programme cost, making it accessible to working professionals seeking continuing education without leaving employment.

Frequently Asked Questions