Allied health professionals are important for holistic healthcare. Realising the need to have professionals in this field, Manipal University started the AHS program at KMC Mangalore in 1995 with a bachelor’s degree in physiotherapy. Later, in 2004, the bachelor’s program in speech and hearing was started.
True to expectations, when our students started graduating, they were quickly absorbed in hospitals and other centres which valued their worth. That was when the great potential for employment in corporate hospitals, rehabilitation centers, polyclinics, industries, training institutions in India and abroad, apart from the option of private practice, came to be known.
The AHS programs avail of the facilities that exist in the KMC. The infrastructure facilities at the KMC are comparable with best international standards. It has eight, spacious air-conditioned lecture halls fitted with modern audio-visual teaching aids including multi-media projectors.
The Central Library of the College is modern. It is fully air-conditioned with a seating capacity of 500 and has internet facility. In 2001, the Centre for Basic Sciences was started at Bejai for first year students. There is also a Medical Education Unit, which ensures that the faculty get trained in teaching and student evaluation methodologies. It helps the staff in staying abreast of the advances in teaching. It also conducts orientation programs for students, interns and postgraduates.
FACILITIES
A number of facilities are available for different sports disciplines. Playgrounds for cricket, hockey and football, courts for tennis, basketball, badminton and volleyball, a gym and an athletics track are all present for the students to pick and choose from.
Students can join clubs for music and fine arts, literature and debating and photography. Manipal Campus of our University also has a chapter of SPIC MACAY, which stages an annual festival, Virasat, presenting luminaries of Indian dance and music. The students are also encouraged to take part in inter-college, inter-university and national-level competitions.
On the academic side, a unique advantage for the students in Mangalore campus is that they have exposure to clinical studies in four different hospitals, two of which are run by the State Govt. KMC also helps students get over local language difficulty by arranging classes where they get a working knowledge of local languages and expressions which helps them during their clinical studies.
A Student-Teacher-Guardian Scheme is present in addition to a Students’ Grievances Cell. By way of social service, the students have also started a Drug Bank.