SYDNEY MEDICAL SCHOOL
Our Saudi Connections MAY 2010
IN THIS ISSUE 01-02
FEATURE ARTICLE COLLABORATING WITH KING SAUD BIN ABDULAZIZ UNIVERSITY In January 2010, a senior delegation from the University of Sydney travelled to Riyadh to attend the First International Exhibition for Higher Education. The visit further cemented ties between the university and King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and the National Guard Health Affairs in Riyadh..
02 VISIT BY HRH PRINCE TURKI AL FAISAL
02 VISIT BY THE SAUDI DEPUTY MINISTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION
COLLABORATING WITH KING SAUD BIN ABDULAZIZ UNIVERSITY In January 2010, a senior delegation from the University of Sydney travelled to Riyadh to attend the First International Exhibition for Higher Education. The visit further cemented ties between the university and King Saud Bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences and the National Guard Health Affairs in Riyadh. The University of Sydney delegates met with HE Dr Khalid M Alankary, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Higher Education. During the meeting Dr Alankary encouraged further collaboration between Sydney Medical School and the top local universities King Saud University, King Abdulaziz University, King Fahd University and the National Guard. The Minister also emphasised that the Ministry is very interested in helping Saudi universities to sign service contracts with top universities
03 SAUDI MINISTERIAL VISIT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
04 TRAINING SAUDI ARABIA’S FUTURE HEALTH LEADERS
05 SHARED PROBLEMS, SHARED SOLUTIONS: CHILDHOOD OBESITY
05 COUNCIL FOR ARAB AUSTRALIAN RELATIONS SUPPORT PHYSIOTHERAPISTS 1
COLLABORATING WITH KING SAUD BIN ABDULAZIZ UNIVERSITY CONT. from around the world. These service contracts would have specifi c durations, goals and objectives and replace the former MOUs which make for more action oriented agreements. During the visit to Saudi Arabia in January, Associate Professor Lyndal Trevena, Associate Dean (International) and Director of the Offi ce for Global Health, and Mohsen Soliman, Manager International Relations and Manager, Offi ce for Global Health Marketing also met with Professor Rashed S Al Rashed, Vice President Postgraduate Education, and Associate Professor Mohamed A Al-Moamary, Associate Dean, Clinical Affairs at the King Saud bin Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences/National Guard Health Affairs. Discussions focused on the University of Sydney Medical Program, which King Saud bin Abdulaziz University has been teaching in Saudi Arabia for 5 years. “The University of Sydney Medical Program delivered by King Saud bin Abdulaziz University and customised for the Saudi population was the first problem-based learning (PBL) program to be taught in the region”, says Associate Professor Lyndal Trevena, “and an agreement has been made with the University of Sydney for a further five years.” Whilst at the university, the Sydney Medical School delegation also met with four potential Saudi PhD candidates. Based on this meeting, two of the four PhD candidates have now been accepted into the University of Sydney to start their PhD research in July 2010. One student will be completing a PhD in the Faculty of Dentistry in and the other in Sydney Medical School. “Also discussed was the possibility of sending a faculty member to attend that university’s Medical Career Day to answer enquiries from graduate students and provide information regarding post graduate study and research opportunities at Sydney Medical School and other faculties such as Dentistry, Pharmacy, Sciences and Health Sciences”, says Mohsen Soliman, Manager, International Relations for the Offi ce for Global Health. “This was acted upon with Dr Vera Terry attending the Medical Career Day in February 2010”.
VISIT BY THE SAUDI DEPUTY MINISTER FOR HIGHER EDUCATION Dr Abdullah Al-Musa, Saudi Deputy Minister for Scholarships, Ministry of Higher Education Arabia visited Sydney University in March 2010.
Accompanied by Dr Ali Al-Bishri, Saudi Cultural Attaché , Dr Abdul Aziz Al-Oraini, Consultant to the Deputy Minister and Dr Sattam Al-Otaibi, Deputy Cultural Attaché, the delegation met with various senior staff from the university to discuss issues related to the welfare of Saudi students enrolled at Sydney. The visit concluded with agreement that ongoing dialogue and visits are needed to ensure the best service for Saudi students now studying at the University of Sydney.
VISIT BY HRH PRINCE TURKI AL FAISAL Professor John Hearn, Deputy Vice-Chancellor, International, welcomed HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the University of Sydney on Wednesday 3 June 2009. Prince Turki Al Faisal was accompanied by His Excellency Hassan bin Talat Nazer, Saudi Ambassador to Australia and New Zealand, Dr Ali Albishri the Saudi Cultural Attaché and a delegation from the King Faisal Centre for Research and Islamic Studies. The delegation was at the University to discuss options for further engagement in Saudi research and teaching programs in key focus areas of medicine, sciences, law, architecture, engineering and humanities and social sciences. A presentation on the Saudi Health Program was made by Mr Mohsen Soliman. Professor Hearn hosted a luncheon for HRH Prince Turki Al Faisal, which included the Dean of Medicine, Professor Bruce Robinson, the Dean of Law, Professor Gillian Triggs, the Acting Dean of Education and Social Work, Professor Robyn Ewing and Associate Professor Ahmad Shboul, Chair of Department of Arab & Islamic Studies at the Faculty of Arts.
SAUDI MINISTERIAL VISIT TO THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
Delegation members are: HE Dr Khalid M Alankary – Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Higher Education. Professor Mohammed Alawhaly – Deputy Minister for Education
On Monday 24 May 2010 the University have taken this highly evolved product of Sydney welcomes HE Dr Khalid M and linked it with the latest web Alankary, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of development techniologies.” Higher Education. Dr Alankary will be Exambank’s features include: accompanied by his Deputy Minister • storage of additional information about and the Vice-Chancellors of six top the questions, such as author, usage, universities in Saudi Arabia. and statistical information, The Minister and his delegation will • ability to store multiple types of discuss plans to further enhance our questions, collaboration with Saudi Arabia. Key topics for discussion include: • exam blueprinting, • further cooperation in teaching, learning and research
• strong access control, to prevent the leaking of questions,
• scientifi c research
• distribution of exam creation responsibilities so that experts from different disciplines can work together to create an exam,
• services contracts in the Medical Sciences, and • quality assurance in higher education.
• handling for multiple question types During the visit, Tabuk University will and exams, and sign two license agreements with Sydney Medical School, the Exambank • linkage to the Compass learning objectives system to ensure that and Compass integrated information assessments are aligned to content system. These agreements are the and outcomes and blueprinted result of a visit from Tabuk University according to curriculum delivery. to the University of Sydney in August 2009 by Professor Tawfik M Ghabrah, Used in conjunction with the Compass Dean - Faculty of Medicine at learning outcomes system, it provides University of Tabuk, Saudi Arabia. an ability to map assessment to curriculum. “Compass is a new kind A follow up meeting in Saudi Arabia of Learning Management System in January 2010 between Associate for creating a constructively aligned Professor Lyndal Trevena, Mr Mohsen curriculum that links all the online Soliman, Manager International components of a course to their Relations and Dr Tawfik Ghabrah cemented the cooperation agreement learning outcomes”, says Daniel Burn. “The development of Compass was for collaboration in research and collaboration between Educational conducting workshops in Tabuk University in Medical Education as well and IT experts with many years of experience, bringing the latest as licensing of the Sydney Medical knowledge in adult teaching and School’s Exam Bank. learning together with the most up-to“Exambank, developed by Sydney date online development techniques.” Medical School, is an examination item Compass features bank for storing a large collection of assessment items”, says Mr Daniel Burn, IT Development Manager at Sydney Medical School. “It provides academics with the ability to manage create and manage an examination question collection and then build an examination using client preferred criteria. Exambank allows the history of questions to be tracked, their prior use and with which exams they have been used in the past. We have refi ned Exambank over the years and we
• a seamless and searchable application with a user-friendly interface for students and teachers at all teaching sites. • learning objectives, teaching and learning resources, and scheduling information, linked to assessments. Also during the visit, King Abdulaziz University will sign a service contract with Sydney Law School for Moot Training Workshops to be held
Professor Abdullah Almosa – Deputy Minister for Scholarships Professor Abdulkader Alfentokh – Deputy Minister for Planning and Development Dr Salem Almalik – Director of International Relations Professor Abdullah Alothman – Vice-Chancellor, King Saud University Professor Osamah Taeeb – Vice-Chancellor, King Abdulaziz University Professor Khalid Al-Sultan – Rector, King Fahd University of Petroleum & Minerals Professor Abdulayllah Banajah – President, Taif University Professor Saad Alharigi – President, AlBaha University Professor Ahmed Alsaif – Rector, University of Ha’il
in Sydney and in Jeddah. The arrangement was brokered by Mr Mohsen Soliman Manager International Relations from the Offi ce for Global Health.
TRAINING SAUDI ARABIA’S FUTURE HEALTH LEADERS Since 2005, the Saudi Arabian Government has entrusted the training of its future health leaders to the University of Sydney. In that first year of the program 60 Saudi students, fresh from their high school experience, arrived in Sydney to begin their training. Fast forward to today where in March 2010 the University of Sydney welcomed 15 new candidates to commence the Saudi Health Program bringing the total number of Saudi Health Program students studying at the university to 102. “The Saudi Health Program is a comprehensive offering which commences with English language
“I HAVE SPENT THREE JOYFUL AND HARD WORKING YEARS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY, THE EXPERIENCE I GAINED WAS UNIQUE.”
training at the Centre for English Teaching (CET) at the University of Sydney. The students then undertake the University of Sydney Foundation Program at Taylors College to ensure that they are adequately prepared for the rigors of study at the University of Sydney, before proceeding to a Bachelor degree”, says Saudi Health Program Coordinator, Mohsen Soliman. Now with the program in its fifth year, candidates are enrolled in a range of Faculty of Health Science and Faculty of Science programs, including the Faculty of Health Science Bachelor programs in Occupational Therapy and Health Sciences, Faculty of Science Bachelor programs in Liberal Arts and Science, Molecular Biology and Genetics, Bachelor of Science and the highly competitive Bachelor of Medical Science.
“In December 2009, two Saudi students who arrived in 2005, Mohammed Kamel Al Mubark and Shams Bukhamseen, graduated from the Faculty of Health Sciences with Bachelor degrees in Health Sciences. In June this year we expect an additional 12 students to graduate”, says Mr Soliman. Most candidates aim high. Their ambition is to successfully apply to the Sydney Medical School and start study towards their medical degree in March 2011. One of the first to graduate from a Bachelor’s degree here is Mohammed Kamel Al Mubark. “I originally thought that I wanted to study Medicine, but after completing my Bachelor of Health Sciences in December 2009, I decided that I would rather study Master of Health Informatics.” Mohammed started his Master degree in March 2010, becoming the fi rst Saudi student from this cohort to do so.
Mohammed continues, “the University of Sydney is the fi rst university in Australia and one of the leading universities for research. In a university like Sydney, I can be assured of getting a high standard of education as well as the opportunity to be involved in human health research. Even though I’m far away from my home country, I don’t feel homesick, simply because the friendly environment in Australia satisfi es everybody’s needs.”
Looking back on those years Mohammed says, “I have spent three joyful and hard working years at the University of Sydney, the experience I gained was unique. That is why I choose to continue my post graduate studies in Health Informatics at the University of Sydney. Living in a multicultural society in Sydney which teaches me to deal with people having different backgrounds, which results in cultivating a better person.”
SHARED PROBLEMS, SHARED SOLUTIONS: CHILDHOOD OBESITY Obesity and pre-diabetes in children and young people is not just a major public health problem in Australia, it is an emerging health issue we share with many countries around the world, including Saudi Arabia. A new collaboration with King Saud University is aiming to tackle the issue. In late March 2009 Deputy Associate Dean in the Discipline of Paediatrics and Child Health, Professor Louise Baur attended the 1st International Conference and Workshop on Childhood and Adolescent Obesity. The conference was held at the College of Medicine, King Saud University, Riyadh. The conference was held in order to launch the newly recently established Chair of Childhood Obesity under the oversight of Dr Aayed Al-Qahtani Associate Professor and Director of the King Saud University Obesity Chair and to garner local and international cooperation around the important issue of paediatric obesity and related diseases. Professor Baur has a formal role as Advisor to the Obesity Research Chair. The conference showed that there are many potential ways in which the University of Sydney and King Saud University could interact on clinical, research and population health aspects to these problems of obesity.
While in Riyadh, Professor Baur gave made three presentations to the conference: Clinical practice guidelines for managing childhood obesity: summarizing the evidence and putting it into practice; Establishing a child and adolescent weight management program: lessons learned;
Preventing childhood obesity: is it possible?
Abstracts from the meeting were subsequently published in the International Journal of Paediatric Obesity. Professor Baur also had a range of meetings with Saudi clinicians and researchers as well as staff and students from KingSaud University. A range of possible strategies for research and PhD student supervision were discussed. “There are real opportunities for Australia and Saudi Arabia to learn from each other as we both deal with this dangerous health issue”, says Professor Baur. I am looking forward to the opportunity to understand the issues as they face young Saudi children though working closely with the new Chair”.
COUNCIL FOR ARAB AUSTRALIAN RELATIONS SUPPORT PHYSIOTHERAPISTS The Council for Arab Relations (CAAR), part of the Australia Department for Foreign Affairs and Trade, is supporting the development of physiotherapy services throughout Saudi Arabia. CAAR funds have allowed for the translation from English into Arabic of an existing website containing physiotherapy exercises. “The website was originally designed to provide inexperienced, isolated and rural physiotherapists in Australia with practical and much-needed information about different types of exercises, stretches and training strategies appropriate for people with neurological conditions”, says Senior Lecturer Lisa Harvey of Sydney’s Northern Clinical School’s Rehabilitation Studies Unit. “The website was also designed to enable physiotherapists to readily and easily generate individualised and professional-looking exercise booklets for their patients. Translation of the website provides greater access to the information contained in the website by Arabic speaking physiotherapists. It would also enable patient exercise booklets to be produced in Arabic.” The physiotherapy exercises project was commenced in 2002 with initial funding from the Royal Rehabilitation Centre Sydney and the Motor Accidents Authority of NSW (MAA). This initial funding was used to generate 150 exercises onto a CD. A further grant from the MAA was then used to build on this initial work. It was used to create the website and add a further 350 exercises for people with spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury. The website now contains over 750 exercises appropriate for people with neurological conditions. “The website had been successfully translated into Chinese, Norwegian, Russian and Vietnamese. We are so grateful for CAAR’s support to make this information available to the Arab-speaking world, says Lisa. “A spin-off is that the new website is now also better able to serve our Arabic-speaking physios and their clients in Australia.” The website can be found at www.physiotherapyexercises.com 5
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OFFICE FOR GLOBAL HEALTH
The Office for Global Health works closely with the University’s Offi ce of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (International). The Office for Global Health is part of Sydney Medical School and aims to internationalise the research we undertake, the experience of our students and staff, and our approaches to learning and teaching. We also aim to contribute to the health and wellbeing of our region by engaging in health projects with some of our nearest neighbours. Find out more about the activities of our office by visiting our website: www.sydney.edu.au/global-health
SYDNEY MEDICAL SCHOOL
MOHSEN SOLIMAN Mohsen Soliman is the Manager International Relations and Manager, Office for Global Health Marketing. Mohsen provides analysis, program development, support and advice on relationships with partners in the Middle East Region and Africa. Mohsen was born in Egypt and lived and worked in Europe and the Middle East. Before settling in Australia he spent two years in Saudi Arabia preparing young Saudi graduates for the world of work. Mohsen has been working with the Saudi Health Program students at the University of Sydney since 2005. Contact Mohsen : Phone: +61 2 9036 7123. Email: mohsen.soliman@sydney.edu.au
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT T +61 2 9036 7123 F +61 2 9036 3343 E mohsen.soliman@sydney.edu.au SYDNEY.EDU.AU/global-health
CREDITS Copy: Mohsen Soliman and Louise Freckleton Editor: Louise Freckleton Layout: Michael Texilake
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