TRAVELOGUE. In early November last year, Solveig Lövestad and Monica Hunsberger (Master’s program in public health Directors) and Evelina Nyström (International Coordinator at Sahlgrenska Academy) traveled to Rajarata University in Mihintale in the Northeastern part of Sri Lanka and to NITTE (Deemed to be University) in the Southern part of India. Here they share a story from the journey.
The goal was to strengthen relationships with teachers and researchers working in diverse public health settings, assure quality field placements for our international students who can go abroad on course exchange, internships and for thesis work, and promote the possibility to study with our programs.
We observe that this diversity creates a unique opportunity for students in our programs to truly appreciate other cultures, share experiences, strengthen their networks, and build longstanding friendships.
The international master’s programs in public health and global health at the Sahlgrenska Academy attract applicants from all over the world and represents nearly 40 nationalities. Having diverse representation of culture and disciplines is an important aspect in our programs as it allows for a rich exchange of experience and critical reflection on public health challenges. We observe that this diversity creates a unique opportunity for students in our programs to truly appreciate other cultures, share experiences, strengthen their networks, and build longstanding friendships.
The opportunity for exchanges with other universities is important, partly for academic study exchanges, but also for internships and collaborative research, such as thesis projects based on data collected during field work experiences. In fact, Jelena Svrdlin, one of our MPH students, traveled with us to begin a 10-week internship in Sri Lanka, collecting data for her master’s thesis. Clearly, teacher and staff exchanges are also important to develop the quality of our master’s programs. Our trip to Rajarata University, Sri Lanka was focused on meeting students studying Health Promotion under the leadership of Dr. Manoj Fernando, Head of the Department and Professor Duminda Guruge. We presented our master’s program to Sri Lankan Health Promotion students. Later we had the opportunity to visit two rural communities that are actively engaged in health promotion activities in collaboration with the university students and staff.
After our trip to Sri Lanka, we traveled on to Mangalore, India to visit Nitte (deemed to be University) where we were warmly welcomed by Prof. Dr. Iddya Karunasagar, Senior Director, International Relations, and Prof. Dr. Indrani Karunasagar.
The first day we met with the Vice Chancellor, Prof. Satheesh Kumar Bhandary and signed a MOU for student and teacher exchange.
In the ensuing days, we visited two of NITTE´s (Deemed to be University) 21 rural health centers. The first rural health center we visited included traditional medical services as well as mental health and a dental clinic. The day after we visited the second rural health center located in a fishing village 20 minutes from Mangalore.
Our final day was spent with the staff and the program director of the master’s program in public health (MPH), Mr. Mackwin Kenwood D’mello. We met the students and shared information about our master’s program in public/global health and potential exchange possibilities.
and Dental Clinic. Right: Site visit. Rural Health Training Centre in Sasihitlu (fishing village).
In the final afternoon, we met with program leadership and made plans to begin our collaboration. In closing, the staff and facilities are top-notch, the staff and faculty are beyond words kind, and the master’s in public health curriculum is an excellent match for our students.
As a bit of historical background, our relationship with Rajarata University was initiated by Professor Gunilla Krantz and Lena Andersson already in 2010. Since then, approximately 50 students have performed data collection/internship at Rajarata University.
Our relationship with NITTE (Deemed to be University) is new for the MPH, however, our collaborators, have historically had a relationship to Sweden, namely in Marine Sciences.
A big part of our ambition is to be approved for bilateral funding from the Erasmus + International Credit Mobility (ICM) program in 2023 as we aim to level the exchange, in other words, to receive persons as much as we send.
Finally, we are grateful for the financial support we received for this trip. Special thanks to a Linnaeus Palme planning grant, stimulus from SA council for internationalization, and a Swedish Council for Higher Education (UHR) planning grant.
Read more about the Master’s program in public health on the program’s English website.
BY: SOLVEIG LÖVESTAD, MONICA HUNSBERGER AND EVELINA NYSTRÖM
