Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research (MAHER) was declared as a Deemed to be University under Section 3 of the UGC Act, 1956 on 31.03.2004. The institution was started with the noble cause of providing quality education to students belonging to the weaker section, thereby uplifting the entire society. MAHER has nine colleges under its ambit, which are approved by the respective regulatory bodies and are as follows:

1. Meenakshi Medical College Hospital & Research Institute, Kanchipuram
2. Meenakshi Ammal Dental College and Hospital, Maduravoyal, Chennai
3. Meenakshi College of Nursing, Near Mangadu, Chennai
4. Arulmigu Meenakshi College of Nursing, Kanchipuram
5. Faculty of Physiotherapy, K.K Nagar West, Chennai
6. Faculty of Humanities and Science, K.K Nagar West, Chennai
7. Faculty of Occupational Therapy, K.K Nagar West, Chennai
8. Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Kanchipuram
9. Faculty of Yoga Science and Therapy, K.K Nagar West, Chennai

The institution has created an ecosystem that fosters research, consultancy, outreach and extension activities, innovation, entrepreneurship and generation of intellectual property apart from curricular, extra-curricular and co-curricular activities. The institution has made remarkable strides in all spheres of functioning and has become a premier institution in the country. MAHER offers 77 academic programs at undergraduate, postgraduate and super specialty levels related to Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, Yoga Sciences, Allied health Sciences, Occupational therapy, Physiotherapy, and Humanities and Science. MAHER also offers Ph.D in both part time and full time mode and D.Sc as research programs. A glimpse of the salient achievements made by the institution in the recent times is given below­.

Institutional Accreditations, Rankings and Recognitions

• MAHER was ranked 22^nd under the Dental category in the National Institute Ranking Framework 2022. View Document
• MAHER was accredited with ISO 21001:2018, for complying with the International Standards for the Education Management system in August 2021. View Document
• MAHER was accredited by the National Cyber Security and Safety Standards, Government of India in December 2021 and has been declared as a Resource Center of National Cyber Security Program. View Document
• MAHER is accredited by the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals as well as by the National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (ISO 15189:2012). View Document
• The institution was the only private institute in the State of Tamil Nadu to be selected for conducting the Yoga Mahotsav 2022 program by the Moraji Desai National Institute of Yoga, Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India. Meenakshi Medical College and Hospital has been recognized and appreciated by the Tamil Nadu State Government for its contribution and exemplary performance in the implementation of Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana in September 2022. View Document

 Students Support

• MAHER has students enrolled from different parts of the country, which reflects the inclusive and harmonious environment that prevails in the campus. The welfare of the students is given utmost priority that has resulted in rolling out various support systems for them.
• In an effort to support the students from economically and socially challenged background, MAHER provides institutional scholarships, fee waivers, and complete tuition fee reimbursements apart from facilitating various scholarships offered by governmental and non-governmental agencies through the National Scholarship Portal. View Document
• MAHER provides scholarships to the students of Humanities and Science to pursue certificate courses in SWAYAM/NPTEL portal, a gesture that has helped 315 students to complete such courses in 2021-2022. Additionally, MAHER organized 26 capability building programs in 2021-2022 with the intent of pruning the soft skills of the students. MAHER has collaborated with nearly 50 institutes of regional, national and international repute to provide additional industrial/clinical training to its students.  View Document

Students Graduation and Placement

MAHER maintains a high graduation percentage that ranges between 80-100%. Most of the programs offered at MAHER are professional in nature thereby enabling the graduates to start their own practice and explore their entrepreneurial skills. MAHER also provides training for various competitive exams that help students crack these exams and pursue their higher education. Nearly 80% of students either progress to higher education or get placed comfortably. MAHER takes the responsibility of not only producing highly talented graduates, but also in finding suitable placements for them upon graduation. The Placement Cell of MAHER played a pivotal role in conducting 18 placement drives for the year 2021-2022 through which 632 students got benefitted.   View Document

Faculty Training and Welfare

• MAHER recognizes that faculty members are the assets of the Institution and nurtures them appropriately by providing them with various opportunities to pursue their academic careers alongside their duties toward the students.

• Faculty members are encouraged to pursue advanced studies and are supported by the Institution adequately.

• MAHER provides financial assistance of INR 6.0 lakhs to train 30 faculty members in simulation by the prestigious Hull Institute of Learning and Simulation, United Kingdom in 2022. View Document

• The Common Wealth Institute, United Kingdom, trained nearly 430 faculty members of MAHER on E-content development which was supported by MAHER. View Document

• All faculty members belonging to health science background attended the workshop on “Principles of Good Clinical Practice” with the financial support given by MAHER towards the registration fee of the program. View Document

• Financial support amounting to INR 4.36 lakhs was given to faculty members to attend conferences, workshops, and other academic deliberations in 2021-22. View Document

• The Human Resource Development Centre of MAHER organized soft skill and technical skill enhancement programs for the non-teaching staff of MAHER. View Document

• MAHER, by collaborating with Toronto – Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine, facilitated 10 of its staff members to obtain fellowship from the University of Toronto. 

• All staff and students of MAHER are added as beneficiaries of a group insurance policy and are insured for a sum of INR 2.0 lakhs, for which the premium was paid by the institution. View Document

• Staff members, scholars and students who have brought recognition to the institution through their achievement in the field of research, consultancy, extension activities, academics and extracurricular activities have been recognized and honoured with commendation award and cash prize amounting to INR 1.57 lakhs as a part of College day celebration. View Document

 Women Empowerment and Gender Equity

• One of the distinctiveness of MAHER is the scrupulous and consistent efforts taken towards societal upliftment through women empowerment. More than 50% of academic and administrative positions are held by women which reflects MAHER’S commitment towards gender equity. The Faculty of Humanities and Science, a constituent college of MAHER, was declared as Women’s college that has resulted in a steady increase in the number of female students from the deprived community enrolling for higher education.
• MAHER has a highly proactive Gender Sensitization Cell that organized 40 activities in the year 2021-22, including a guest lecture on “Diversity & inclusion for a better student life”, delivered by M.S.Madhumitha Gomathinayagam, India’s first transgender HR professional and social activist on the occasion of International Women’s Day, 2022.  View Document
• The Management as well as higher officials of MAHER keenly observe staff members, especially women, who have a flair for administration and multi-tasking and elevates them to appropriate posts thereby, making them role model for others.

 Infrastructure

• MAHER ensures optimal allocation and proper utilization of its financial resources towards maintenance and upliftment of its infrastructural facilities. In line with this, MAHER has disbursed an amount of INR 19 crores towards infrastructure development in the year 2021-2022. View Document
• In the current year, MAHER has upgraded the learning management system by procuring the internationally acclaimed CANVAS Learning Management System for the benefit and ease of students.
• e-governance system of MAHER was also updated by procuring Enterprise Resource Planning software to efficiently manage student affairs, teaching learning process, finance and examination process.
• The research wing of MAHER has also received a face-lift and has been provided with state of art cell culture lab with an investment of INR 30.0 lakhs.
• The Central library at MAHER and at the constituent colleges was integrated with provision of remote access to students and staff. Further, the library has been fully automated through RFID technology, with an investment of around INR 45 lakhs. The e-learning sources available in the library was enhanced by subscribing various databases worth INR 75.0 lakhs that include DELNET, PROQUEST, J-Gate, EBSCO Host and Elsevier Clinical Keys for Clinicians. In addition, the library has been upgraded with latest editions of textbooks amounting to INR 20.0 Lakhs. View Document

 R&D and Consultancy

• MAHER believes that research and development is the only way forward and is dedicated to providing a conducive environment to promote quality research. MAHER has three research laboratories that are equipped with all major equipment to conduct sophisticated research and provide scope for providing consultancy services.
• In 2021-2022, MAHER granted seed money to the tune of INR 1.36 crores to its faculty members to kick-start their research projects. View Document
• This encouraged them to attract extramural research funding from various government and non-government organizations amounting to INR 1.9 crores. View Document
• MAHER takes great pride that 21 projects were selected by the Indian Council of Medical Research under the Short Term Studentship scheme in the year 2022. View Document
• A total of 965 indexed publications have been generated by the faculty members of MAHER, propelling the h-index of the Institution to 40.
• The current year saw a generous increase in the incentive given under the publication incentive scheme and ranges between INR 7500 to 15000 for various categories of publication. View Document
• MAHER recognizes that Consultancy is a crucial element of an Institution’s enterprise and dissemination of knowledge to society. It thus identifies the expertise of the faculty members in their respective fields of interest and provides the facility and resources required for the execution of the projects. A total of INR 3.76 crores was generated by MAHER through their consultancy projects/services. View Document

Innovations and Incubation

• MAHER has a well-established Institution Innovation Council (IIC) in which is certified by the Ministry of Education, Government of India in 2021. MAHER’s IIC was selected by the Ministry of Health, Government of India for conducting IPR Impact Lecture Series for the year 2021-22. The Incubation and Innovation centre of MAHER spreads over 10,000 sq ft with state-of-the-art infrastructure. Currently, the institution has applied for grant-in-aid under the Atal Innovation Mission, Government of India. View Document
• The faculty members of MAHER have been actively engaged in the generation of intellectual properties, the cost of which is entirely borne by MAHER as indicated in the Research Promotion Policy. A total of 12 patents, 173 copyrights, and 48 design patents have been granted by the Department of Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Government of India, in addition to 107 patents that are published and are in the process of review.  View Document

Institutional Social responsibility

• MAHER has four NSS units with 400 volunteers who participate in various socially responsible activities including Swachh Bharath, Clean India Campaign, Lake and Beach Cleaning, tree plantation etc. In addition, under the Unnat Bharat Abhiyan scheme, MAHER conducts various programs including COVID 19 awareness Programs, awareness on Breast Feeding, Diabetes, Pulse Polio, Women empowerment, Health and Lifestyle in the adopted villages. MAHER has conducted 406 social extension activities which involved 100 % of students with a total expenditure of INR 17.04 lakhs for the year 2021-2022. View Document
• MAHER partnered with Environment Federation of India, a NGO to conduct Chennai sea shore cleaning activity over a period of five weeks in which more than 553 students participated. Similarly, students were involved in cleaning heritage temples and government parks located in and around Kanchipuram district. 
• The institution sponsored the construction of toilets in government schools as its contribution towards Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. With the interest of creating political and democracy awareness, Youth Parliament Club for students was created in 2022, in which 55 students participated in Mock Parliament activity. The students and scholars of Faculty of Yoga science and therapy have taken up the noble cause of empowering rural India by conducting skill training and health promotion activities. The Faculty of Physiotherapy started the ambitious project of providing physiotherapy and pain relief at the doorsteps in 66 villages and hamlets located in Tamil Nadu. This initiative received wide recognition and was deeply appreciated by the Government of Tamil Nadu.

These concerted efforts and activities of students, scholars and staff of MAHER supported by the Management has enabled the institution to march towards its vision of becoming a world-class institution, transforming society through value-based programs and healthcare advancements, leading to the all-around development of human resources, knowledge, innovation, entrepreneurship, and research.