Experience with University Partnership between India, Turkey, Nigeria and Germany in the field of Pu

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Experience with University Partnership between
India, Turkey, Nigeria and Germany in the field
of Public Health

• Prof. Dr. Bassey E. Antia,
• Department of Languages and Linguistics,
  University of Maiduguri Borno, State Nigeria 
• Prof. Dr. K.R. Nayar (Presenter)
• Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health
  Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi, India 
• Patrick Brzoska
• University of Bielefeld, Germany

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Partnership cities
BIELEFELD
ANKARA
NEW DELHI
MAIDUGURI
TRIVANDRUM
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Partnership universities
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Partnership activities
History up to 2005
German coordinator in Delhi (DAAD short-term
lectureship) Teaching and Publications
Teaching and Publications One of the main
activities
Student exchanges
2005 DAAD-funding of the partner-ship begins
1998
2001-2
2004
1996/97
Informal cooperations between German, Indian and
Turkish coordinators
Indian coordinator in Heidelberg (DAAD guest
faculty. Teaching and Publications
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Rationale and objectives

• Global/International public health the emerging
  scenario The possibility of working together
• Inter-disciplinary orientation
• Universalization and contextualization
• Exchange of Perspectives, knowledge and
  experiences between different countries
• Improving teaching focusing on public health
  perspectives and epidemiology at all universities
• Gaining and imparting intercultural skills
• Continuous discussion about public health topics.
  

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Types of activities
Direct activities
E-learning-activities
Summer Schools
Exchanges of stud./lecturers
Symposia, Planning meet.
Virtual Classroom
Electronic Journal Club
Blog and chat
iph-partnership.org
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Partnership activities
Funding period 2005-2008
3. Symposium in Kerala
2.IPH undergraduate-Course in Bielefeld
3.IPH undergraduate-Course in Bielefeld
1. IPH summer school in Bielefeld
3. Summer School, Ankara
1.Symposium in Delhi
Student exchangeto Delhi
Student exchangeto Delhi
2005
2006
2007
2008
Symposium Dis-tance learning and electronic
media in Delhi
2. IPH- Summer-School in Bielefeld
IPH undergraduate course in Bielefeld
1.IPH-Undergraduate-Kurs in Bielefeld
2. Symposium in Delhi
Student exchangeto Delhi
Student exchangeto Delhi
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Experiences Positive and not so positive

• The four year formal partnership (2005-2008)
  between the three universities
• Bielefeld, Anakara and JNU
• Gave rich insights into the Intellectual
  (Publications and Pedagogic), Procedural
  (bureaucratic) and Social dimensions of academic
  partnerships

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Intellectual Dimensions(Publications and
Pedagogic issues)

• Publications
• Constant exposure to each others academic milieu
  especially by the lead coordinators enabled
  intellectual exchange and debates on public
  health issues which resulted in publication of a
  number of papers. Some select examples
• Razum, Liyanage and Nayar in the Lancet
• Nayar and Razum in Croatian Medical Journal
• Razum et al in the Lancet
• Nayar and Razum in EPW
• Razum and Nayar in , Laaser, Ulrich and
  Radermacher, Ralf (Eds.). Financing Health Care -
  A Dialogue between South Eastern Europe and
  Germany.
• Nayar, Razum and Kyobutungi in Int J Equity in
  Health
• Nayar and Razum in International studies
• Akgun in J of Hlth and Development
• Akgun and A.F Al-Assaf in J of Hlth and
  Development
• And a few publications by the students of
  respective universities

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PedagogyDirect contacts

• The two Important teaching activities were
• Focused epidemiology modules
• International Public Health Summer School
• Apart from
• Guest Lectures by Visiting scholars
• And Short and long stay by students in each
  others institutions

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International Summer School

• Tentative topics to be covered
• Introduction Population, development and health
  (Indian partners)
• Burden of disease (Turkish and German partners)
• International development goals and strategies
  (German and Indian partners)
• Comparative studies in health systems (Indian and
  German partners)
• Health sector reform (Turkish and Indian
  partners)
• Migration and health (German and Turkish
  partners)
• Public health research methodology (German and
  Indian partners)
• Case studies of exemplary Public Health
  challenges HIV and cardiovascular disease
  epidemics psychiatric disorders conflict and
  violence (all partners).

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E-learning activities

• The main activity centered around the website
  based on a Wiki software

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Types of activities
www.iph-partnership.org
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• Graded assignments of the students in Bachelor of
  Health Communications (Bielefeld University) and
  M.Phil/MPH students of JNU Delhi(related to the
  course environment and health) made available in
  the website

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• A Community platform where students register with
  their CVs

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• A Professors Corner which is used to share
  working ideas of the faculty

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E-learning The weakling(k)

• Lack of adequate Virtual exchanges on the topics
  uploaded by the students. No mutual commentaries
  or critique on the assignments.
• Discussions on virtual journal club has not been
  encouraging
• Lack of (very limited) overlap or correspondence
  between universities with regard to the teaching
  semester periods could be one of the reasons for
  the lack of interactions
• Less Interest due to the existing reward system
  especially grading which are governed by the
  existing ordinances of universities

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The Procedural (Bureaucratic) Issues

• As typical of most international projects
• Bureaucratic bottlenecks in signatures, money
  transfer etc. applicable to this partnership as
  well (It includes difficulties in getting
  approvals for travel as one of my co-presenters
  faced)

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The Social dimensions

• Multi-cultural exposures in short and long stay
  of students in other countries perhaps are one of
  the most positive fallouts.
• Appreciation of the problems and societal
  dynamics including exposure in universities
  including the hostels and class rooms.
• Opportunity for travel within the countries and
  experience different sub-cultures
• Lived experiences opens up the intellectual
  horizons and helps in building a more
  comprehensive public health perspective. It helps
  in grooming the new generation of public health
  scholars

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To conclude

• On the whole, direct contacts were more
  rewarding than virtual exchanges within the
  partnership
• In order to enhance virtual exchanges, the new
  partnership which began in 2009 with two new
  institutions have introduced Blogs, Chat rooms
  etc.
• A focused thematic attention on inequalities in
  health
• Moderated journal club on emerging public health
  topics
• Problem-oriented learning projects
• Chat room
• List server or bulletin board to exchange news
  and opinions. The server software is freeware,
  and published papers for activities such as
  the virtual journal club will be chosen from the
  open-access publishers
• 
  Thank you