The Manipal Alumni Association Malaysia was formed by the Former Students of Kasturba Medical College – Manipal,India. Upon returning home to Malaysia after completing their MBBS, while they moved on to working in the government service, the former students of KMC felt a need to connect with each other, to socialise and reminisce about the good old days.
The initial core group who mooted the idea of the Manipal Alumni Association consisted of Dr.V.Surendranathan, Dr. R. L. Anandan, Dr. Rasihd, Dr. Jeyaratnam, Dr. Pathmarajah, and Dr.S.S. Thevan.
This group met regularly either in one of their houses or in restaurants and organised the first Alumni get together in September 1979. This was followed by the first annual Dinner Dance in Shangri-La Hotel, Kuala Lumpur. These Dinner Dances have become an annual affair ever since. The Association was later registered with the Registrar of Societies, Malaysia on 1st July 1986 and has since grown in strength.
In contrast with other KMC Alumni all over the world, the unique feature of The Manipal Alumni Association Malaysia is that all Graduates from Manipal or Mangalore, whether medical, dental, engineering or otherwise are welcome to join the Association. There are 13,000 potential members in Malaysia of which about 1500 have joined the Association. The Dinner and Dance – besides being an opportunity to socialise, have also gradually earned money for the association.
We have in the past donated some of these proceeds to worthy charitable organisations, run free medical camps and even adpoted a village.
Since 1997 the Manipal Alumni extended its arm to include the graduates of Melaka Manipal Medical Association and later on in 2011 we included the graduates of Manipal International University. The Alumni has grown over the years and we have many more activities now. In 2006 the Alumni started its own Newsletter called “Howzit”. From just a 4 page summary, it has now grown to a 30 page Newsletter. The Alumni conducts and endorses Continuous Professional Development courses for members to get the required CPD points to renew their Annual Practising Certificate.
The Alumni also works with Insurance brokers to get the best deals for members to obtain their Professional Medical Indemnity Insurance.
In 2013 the Alumni formed the Society for Scientific Studies which was responsible to organise and facilitate all our CPD events.
In 2014 the Manipal Alumni Science & Health Journal was born and has been steadily growing. In 2016 we began to host the ‘Manipal Playoffs’ on a yearly basis for all our members who love sports.
In 2017 we started with the yearly Manipal Alumni CSR projects and have been working with Autistic children throughout the country.
In 2018 we mooted the Membership Card and Membership Benefits. We have now made the Membership cards digital and all new members receive their e-card with a list of membership benefits.