Dr K Ramnarayan joined Kasturba Medical College, Manipal in 1977 after completing his MBBS from Stanley Medical College, Chennai. After acquiring an MD in Pathology, he continued in the service of KMC, Manipal in different faculty designations from Lecturer to Professor of Pathology. Additionally, he was Dean of Student Affairs and Associate Dean (Curriculum) in Kasturba Medical College, Manipal.

In 1994, Dr Ramnarayan moved to the newly formed International Centre for Health Sciences, Manipal, as Associate Dean to initiate and implement the MBBS Twinning Programme with the University of the West Indies.

He was the first Dean of the unique Melaka Manipal MBBS twin campus programme with Malaysia since its inception in 1997 till May 2010 when he was appointed Pro Vice Chancellor of Manipal University. He spearheaded several curricular reforms and under his dynamic academic leadership in the Manipal Campus, the programme achieved three successful accreditations, by the Malaysian Qualifications Agency (MQA) culminating in the most recent, creditable 5-year accreditation.

For his role in ‘Creating Intellectual Capital in the Melaka Manipal MBBS programme, he received the Excellence Award at the Manipal Leadership Summit in 2003.

Dr Ramnarayan was one of the early recipients of the ECFMG Foreign Faculty Fellowship in Basic Sciences, which initiated him into medical education in the US. He was subsequently awarded the Short Term Exchange Fellowship in academic leadership by the Foundation for the Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER), USA.

Dr Ramnarayan has a Post Graduate Diploma in Higher Education from the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) and is one of the founder members of the Department of Medical Education, Kasturba Medical College, Manipal. He has conducted over 300 faculty development workshops, nationally and internationally, over the past 25 years.

He has guided several PhD students and has over 80 research publications, most of them in pertaining to the field of medical education. He has been an International Advisor for four successive editions of Underwood’s textbook of Pathology

Dr Ramnarayan is married to Parvathi and they have a daughter Arathi.