Manipur University () is a public central university in Imphal, the capital of the north-eastern Indian state of Manipur. Its main campus stands at Canchipur, on the southern fringe of the city, where it occupies the site of the Langthabal Konung, a former royal palace. The institution was set up by the Government of Manipur on 5 June 1980 under the Manipur University Act, 1980, and for the first quarter-century of its life it functioned as a state-run, teaching-cum-affiliating university with jurisdiction over Manipur as a whole. Central status came with the Manipur University Act, 2005, which the Parliament of India passed that year and which the President of India assented to on 28 December 2005; the new arrangement took effect from 13 October 2005.
The university today runs nine schools of studies and forty-seven academic departments, and it serves as the affiliating authority for 119 colleges across the state, of which three are medical colleges and one, the Manipur Institute of Technology, is its sole constituent college. It is recognised by the University Grants Commission and was re-accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) with a 'B+' grade in its second cycle, completed in 2023.
History
The story of higher education at Canchipur begins not in 1980 but in 1972, when Jawaharlal Nehru University opened a Post-Graduate Centre on the site. That centre was folded into the new Manipur University on 1 April 1981, and in the process the university inherited the buildings, faculty and laboratories that would form the nucleus of its administrative headquarters and its early postgraduate teaching.
The first decade was modest. Seven postgraduate departments were set up in English, History, Mathematics, Economics, Political Science, Manipuri and Applied Biology, and the university spent much of the 1980s and 1990s extending that base while serving as the principal academic authority for general degree colleges across the state. The decisive turn came in 2005. The Manipur University Act of that year, enacted by the Parliament of India, converted the institution into a centrally administered university funded directly by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now the Ministry of Education). The change took effect on 13 October 2005, three months before the President assented to the bill.
National attention followed in March 2018, when the campus hosted the 105th Indian Science Congress. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the session on 16 March, joined on the dais by Najma Heptullah, the Governor of Manipur, the Union Minister for Science and Technology Harsh Vardhan, and Chief Minister N. Biren Singh. The session itself was something of an oddity: it had been scheduled for Osmania University in January, but the venue and dates were changed at short notice after Osmania's administration declined to host, citing the risk of campus agitations. Footfall reportedly fell from the customary 12,000 delegates to about 5,000, and it was only the second time in over a century that the Congress had met in north-east India.
Campus
The university occupies the grounds of the Langthabal Konung, a palace established in October 1827 by Maharaja Gambhir Singh following the recovery of the Manipuri throne after the Burmese occupation. The Maharaja died on the same grounds, and the Manipuri poet Lamabam Kamal was born there. None of this is incidental on a campus that takes pride in its setting: the university sits about south of central Imphal along the Indo-Myanmar Road (National Highway 39), and the Langthabal site has been retained as a historic precinct rather than rebuilt over.
In all, the campus extends over roughly of suburban land. A substantial part of that area is given over to ponds, gardens and woodland, and a Biodiversity Park was inaugurated on the grounds in May 2025. Built infrastructure includes the central administrative block, departmental buildings for each school, a three-storey central library covering some 900 square metres of floor space, a health centre, an indoor stadium, five hostels (three for men, two for women), staff quarters, a guest house, a State Bank of India branch and a post office. Three university buses connect the campus to greater Imphal; the Bir Tikendrajit International Airport at Tulihal is about away.
Organisation and administration
Governance
As with every central university in India, the Visitor is the President of India and the chief rector is the state Governor, in this case the Governor of Manipur. The Chancellor presides over the University Court but holds a largely ceremonial role; since 2024 the post has been held by Professor T. Tirupati Rao. Day-to-day administration runs through the Vice-Chancellor, a post left vacant for almost two years before Professor Naorem Lokendra Singh was appointed in July 2021 until 2026, in a single batch of central-university appointments that filled twelve such vacancies at once. A pro vice-chancellor, registrar, finance officer, controller of examinations and dean of students' welfare make up the rest of the senior team. Statutory bodies set up under the 2005 Act include the Court, the Executive Council, the Academic Council, the Finance Committee and the various Boards of Studies.
Schools and departments Academic work is organised under nine schools: Education, Humanities, Human and Environmental Sciences, Life Sciences, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Social Sciences, Medical Sciences, Engineering, and Management Studies. Between them they house forty-seven postgraduate departments. The disciplinary spread is broad. On the humanities and social-science side it covers Manipuri language and literature, English, history, political science, sociology, anthropology, fine arts and library science; on the science and engineering side it ranges through physics, mathematics, chemistry, life sciences, biotechnology, computer science, pharmacy and the various engineering streams housed at the Manipur Institute of Technology.
Department of Manipuri
Department of Manipuri (), also known as Manipuri Department, is an educational department of studies in Meitei language (officially called Manipuri language), at the university. It organises research works in Meitei literature, specifically in Meitei folklore and in Old Manipuri (Ancient Meitei).
Key people are: Toijam Tampha Devi Nahakpam Aruna Devi Loitongbam Birjita Devi Wahengbam Kumari Chanu Chirom Rajketan Singh Koijam Shantibala Devi: an assistant professor of the department, was selected for the Sahitya Akademi Award 2022, for her poetry book Leironnung (). Naorem Sanatomba Singh: an assistant professor of the Manipuri department of Manipur University, and Konthoujam Bimola, an associate professor of the Manipuri department of C.I. College, were selected for the prestigious "Dr. Ambedkar Distinguished Service Award-2022", by the Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Akademi (India), New Delhi. Rajen Toijamba: a retired professor of the department, was bestowed with the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award 2017, for his play . P Gunindro Singh S Sanatombi Singha
The Department of Manipuri provides its students the courses for Manipuri language in the degrees of Master's Degree (MA) as well as Doctor of Philosophy (PhD). Departments of the same subject (Manipuri) of the colleges under the affiliation of the Manipur University offer courses in Bachelor's degree (B.A.). Department of Manipuri of the Manipur University has special Ph.D. programme and regular research programs for Manipuri folklore. The department allotted a paper of 100 marks on Folklore in the syllabus of master's degree of the Manipuri subject. The colleges affiliated to it also have similar papers, carrying 100 marks, dedicated to folklore, in the bachelor's degree. The allotment for same marks and the provision of similar paper for the study of folklore in Meitei are also done in Assam University. Both the departments of both the universities are training the students of Ph.D. for the specialisation in folklore, thereby uplifting the significance of Meitei folklore.
The Department of Manipuri annually celebrates the as well as the Meitei language day (formally known as Manipuri language day).
The Department of Manipuri encompasses various departments of the same subject (Manipuri) in colleges affiliated to the Manipur University, including but not limited to the "Department of Manipuri, Manipur College" (estd. 1958), the "Manipuri Department, Y. K. College", the "Manipuri Department, Oriental College", etc.
Centres of studies Beyond the schools, seven specialised centres handle interdisciplinary teaching and research. The oldest and best known is the Centre for Manipur Studies, a UGC-sponsored area-studies centre that focuses on the history, culture and languages of the region; it has produced more than twenty-five published research works to date. The Centre for Myanmar Studies, an autonomous unit also funded by the UGC, runs six-month certificate courses in the Myanmarese language in two intakes a year, an obvious consequence of Manipur's location on the India–Myanmar border. Other centres include the Centre for Developmental Studies, which has from time to time offered intensive certificate and diploma courses in Japanese; an Educational Multimedia Research Centre; a Computer Centre that handles both administrative and student computing; and, most recently, a Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, which the vice-chancellor inaugurated on 26 March 2026.
Affiliated and constituent colleges For most college-going students in the state, the university's reach is felt less through its own departments than through its affiliating role. As of 2024 it has 119 affiliated colleges and a single constituent, the Manipur Institute of Technology, which sits within the School of Engineering. The university's own classification splits the affiliates into four broad groups: roughly forty-six government colleges, around seventeen government-aided ones, and a larger number of privately managed colleges holding either permanent or temporary affiliation.
Following is a list with some of affiliated colleges:
Biramangol College Chanambam Ibomcha College, Bishnupur Churachandpur College Churachandpur Medical College Don Bosco College, Maram Hill College, Tadubi Ideal Girls' College, Imphal Imphal College Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal East Jiri College, Jiribam Kha-Manipur College Kamakhya Pemton College Liberal College, Imphal Lilong Haoreibi College The Maharaja Bodhachandra College, Imphal Manipur College Manipur Institute of Technology Mayai Lambi College Modern College, Imphal Moirang College Nongmeikapam Gopal College, Imphal Nambol L. Sanoi College Oriental College, Imphal Pettigrew College Presidency College, Motbung Rayburn College Regional Institute of Medical Sciences, Imphal West Shija Academy of Health Sciences Standard College, Kongba Tamenglong College Thoubal College United College, Lambung Yangambam Kumar College, Wangjing Moreh College
Academics
Admissions
Entry to almost every programme runs through one of the central entrance examinations rather than through a university-administered test. Undergraduate admissions to BA, BSc and BVoc programmes are based on CUET-UG scores; postgraduate MA, MSc, MBA and MCA admissions on the CUET-PG; the BTech intake at the Manipur Institute of Technology on JEE Main through the Joint Seat Allocation Authority; and MTech admissions on GATE scores via the Centralised Counselling for M.Tech. The university also conducts its own Manipur University Entrance Test (MUET) for a portion of departmental seats, and where a candidate has sat both, the higher score is taken.
Programmes