EDUCATION
Master’s students in discussion
In response to the needs of today’s students in our fast-paced, globalised world, ITM has been working intently towards building flexible, modular programmes and expert short courses that focus on active dialogue and mutual learning and integrate e-technology.
600+
Students in 2016
Take our Master of Science programmes in Public Health and Tropical Animal Health, for example. Regarded as international points of reference for decades, thousands of alumni around the world treasure the life and study experience they gained in Antwerp. But as the world evolves, so too must our programmes if they are to remain relevant.
In January 2016, the revamped MSc in Tropical Animal Health programme, comprised of 24 animal health professionals, launched with an induction workshop in the field. Purposefully located at the border of South Africa’s Kruger National Park and the Mnisi community, students got a taste of health at this model point of exchange between humans, animals and the environment. The master’s, now a joint venture with the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases (DVTD) of the University of Pretoria, South Africa, is a blended course offering a combination of e-learning and face-to-face modules with a special emphasis on One Health. The programme draws on the complementary research expertise of Pretoria and Antwerp, which cultivates a fertile environment for the development of high quality training modules.
Every eight years, higher education programmes in Flanders face an accreditation process. In 2016 it was our turn. Both the MSc in Tropical Animal Health and the MSc in Public Health received the green light – you can read more about the glowing assessment in the portrait section on page 19. The MSc in Public Health has three orientations, among them the newly accredited International Health orientation, which is flexible and affiliated with the international higher education partnership, tropEd. Studying part-time and learning from different experts at various institutions is a very attractive feature of the programme. Not surprisingly, this orientation has seen rapidly increasing interest from both European and third country candidates, which has led to this year’s decision to raise the admittance quota.
Brand new
2016 saw many changes in our short expert courses. “De-localisation”, where the course is organised outside of ITM walls, is one of these. This shift has brought education closer to where people bear the burden of tropical diseases and poor healthcare. One such example is our short course on Qualitative and Mixed Methods in International Health Research. This intensive one-month course provides students with a comprehensive theoretical background and the methodological skills required to have greater insight into qualitative and mixed methods research in order to better understand human behaviour and local socio-cultural settings in international health. For the first time since its launch, the 6th edition took place in The Gambia, in close collaboration with ITM’s institutional partner, the Medical Research Council Unit The Gambia. This edition attracted many European students, with the number of self-financing participants also noticeably increasing. The student mix and opportunity to carry out field work in a setting relevant for international health themes provided enriched exchanges in the course.
Antibiotic resistance is a fast-growing problem worldwide, and is considered a major threat to public health by the World Health Organization. As a targeted response to the growing need for highly skilled professionals in the containment of antibiotic resistance in low-resource settings, a two-week course on “Hospital-Based Interventions to Contain Antibiotic Resistance” was organised at ITM for the first time in June 2016. Antibiotic resistance can only be controlled through a multidisciplinary approach, which was specifically addressed in the course. During the course, participants (a mix of medical doctors, nursing staff, pharmacists, biomedical and social scientists and laboratory staff) developed a specific containment strategy to be implemented back home. Evaluations of the course were highly positive and an extended three-week long second edition will follow in 2017.
Emerging Voices
for Global Health in Vancouver
Joining forces in course development is a notable trend in an array of ITM programmes. For instance, Emerging Voices 4 Global Health is a DGD-funded multi-partner blended training course directed at young health systems researchers from the South with the mission to empower a new generation of global and local change makers. In 2016, the fifth venture was co-organised by the Institute of Public Health in Bangalore (India), ITM, and a globally representative Emerging Voices governing team. Emerging Voices 2016, which was organised just before the 4th Global Symposium on Health System Research in Vancouver, brought together 40 young and promising health system researchers and professionals, who were coached to actively participate in and feature their work at the Symposium.
Emerging Voices
for Global Health in Vancouver
Joining forces in course development is a notable trend in an array of ITM programmes. For instance, Emerging Voices 4 Global Health is a DGD-funded multi-partner blended training course directed at young health systems researchers from the South with the mission to empower a new generation of global and local change makers. In 2016, the fifth venture was co-organised by the Institute of Public Health in Bangalore (India), ITM, and a globally representative Emerging Voices governing team. Emerging Voices 2016, which was organised just before the 4th Global Symposium on Health System Research in Vancouver, brought together 40 young and promising health system researchers and professionals, who were coached to actively participate in and feature their work at the Symposium.
110
on-going PhD’s at ITM
“De-localisation brings education closer to where people bear the burden of tropical diseases and poor healthcare”
In the run-up to the 13th International Meeting on Molecular Epidemiology and Evolutionary Genetics of Infectious Diseases (MEEGID XIII), ITM organised a two-week course on “Applied molecular epidemiology of infectious diseases” in May 2016. This first edition in Antwerp built upon the experiences from a test edition that took place in 2013 within the framework of the institutional collaboration between ITM and the Institute of Tropical Medicine Alexander von Humboldt in Peru. The 15 participants worked on targeted computing skills and received expert training in advanced molecular techniques to be applied in their own research on leishmaniasis, malaria or tuberculosis. Afterwards, the participants were provided with ample opportunities to interact with each other and meet international top experts of the field during the MEEGID conference, which is part of a prestigious Elsevier series.
Short course on antibiotic resistance
Unique PhD programmes
Apart from the 103 regular PhD students, ITM is a proud partner in two innovative training programmes in which 7 students are completing (parts of) their doctoral studies at the Institute. The first, the Trans Global Health programme, is part of the highly competitive Erasmus Mundus Joint Doctorate Programme. This transdisciplinary programme enables PhD students to receive a double degree from two partner institutes in two European countries. The second, EUROLEISH.NET, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie – Innovative Training Network, is a programme in which a selection of academic and private institutions in Europe and worldwide host 15 PhD students who receive training in disciplines ranging from parasitology, molecular science, genetics, epidemiology to strategic interventions. ITM is proud to host three of these students who are completing the multi disciplinary programme that bridges basic and applied research.
Joining forces
In 2016, the LINQED project – the network connecting ITM with institutional partners with a focus on quality assurance in international health higher education – concluded its final year. Its last annual workshop took place in Kampala, Uganda, in May with 30 participants from 11 LINQED member institutions from Asia, Africa, Latin America and Europe. The workshop themes were ‘Cooperative Learning, Critical Thinking in Higher Education and Improving Education Leadership and Research’. LINQED succeeded in proving that mutual learning on didactics and quality assurance through networking is both feasible and advantageous. Although LINQED has come to an end, the networking activities will continue and even be expanded under a different umbrella. An international partner meeting in August 2016 identified the need to initially focus on strengthening students’ research skills, on developing distance education as well as on organising staff exchange and jointly developing curricula. With the support of the Belgian Development Cooperation, we are setting up a broader educational alliance with our academic partners in the South and other interested institutions. ■
Portrait
A course excellent in relevance
According to the NVAO, the Accreditation Organisation of the Netherlands and Flanders, ITM’s Master of Science in Public Health (MPH) achieves its societal objectives with distinction and continues to maintain the highest degree of academic excellence. Master’s student Rita Zawora Yao Zizien from Burkina Faso could not agree more.
Rita Zawora Yao Zizien
ITM’s MPH turned 50 in 2014. This long-standing programme is geared towards experienced health professionals in low- and middle-income countries with the aim of strengthening health care in developing countries. The course has two study orientations: health systems management and policy, and disease control. Rita Zawora, who is the head of a district hospital where she combines clinical work and management, knows that having experience in both is crucial: “As a health district manager responsible for programme implementation, I was faced with the difficulty of having to use and analyse data to improve the performance of my district. For a successful public health career, a clear understanding of the analytical approaches and interpretation of data are must-haves.”
As with all master programmes in Flanders, the MPH must be re-accredited every eight years based on a thorough external assessment. In the latest assessment report published in August 2016, the NVAO once again designated this master’s-after-master’s training programme as ‘excellent’, which is quite impressive considering that only one other programme in Flanders has ever received a similar appraisal. Among other aspects, the report praised the lecturing staff for its extensive and varied international professional experience, which made their perspectives both keenly relevant and interesting for the students. The report, likewise, made note of the rich variety of teaching methods, high level of interaction and up-to-date course material. Rita could only second this opinion: “The most valuable for me in the course are the lecturers with immense field experience and the quality of the lectures they give us. The diversity of the assignments is also noteworthy – they always shed light on a new dimension I have not previously thought about. I feel challenged!”
According to the NVAO assessment, alumni ‘make clear steps forward in their careers resulting from obtaining their diploma, they form a strong professional network and contribute to other influential networks for advocacy, capacity building and policy change.’ Indeed. Rita first heard about the course from an alumnus: “my very first Regional Director of Health, Dr Robert Kargougou, who is currently the Secretary General of the Ministry of Health of Burkina Faso recommended the course to me. He told me about the great quality training he received and urged me to apply to the institute once I obtained the necessary field experience.”
However, consistent excellent evaluations by no means give us the license to simply rest on our laurels. Rather, this drives ITM to think of innovative ways to keep our master’s programme excellent and relevant. In the coming eight years, we will work towards a course with a more diverse student population in terms of professional background and originating from low-, middle-, but also high-income countries. We will integrate an even greater variety of teaching methods, increasingly emphasize collaboration with an international and multidisciplinary teaching staff and will broaden our flexible modules organised in Antwerp or overseas by experienced staff from partner institutions in the South. ■
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Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp
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