University of Health and Allied Sciences (UHAS) yesterday held a joint project performance-sharing workshop with Yonsei University, South Korea, after a two-year extension. The project, which initially started in April 2017, actively ended in March 2021 and was extended to allow for faculty research. The collaborative project was aimed at empowering UHAS to produce outstanding health professionals who can contribute to the academic development and the national policy advancement on healthcare in the Volta Region and in Ghana as a whole.
Funded by National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF), the project’s objectives were to develop capacity of UHAS faculty in teaching and research, remodel the current educational curriculum, and reorganize the Vocational Training Practice.
At the workshop, a team from Yonsei University, led by Principal Investigator Professor Soon Yi Kim, gave feedback on the project to various stakeholders. Prof. Kim expressed satisfaction with the project, saying, “We hope to continue collaborating or begin new projects in the future.” She added that, with the help of the partnership, some beneficiaries from UHAS have been able to successfully work on their PhD programmes.
The three beneficiary schools, past students, preceptors and community leaders took turns to present their research findings and experiences on the Yonsei-UHAS collaboration.
Dr. Robert Kaba Alhassan, Acting Dean of the Office of International Programmes (OIP), said the partnership between the two universities was based on mutually beneficial collaboration grounded in community service, and hinged on three pillars: developing faculty capacity of the schools of Nursing and Midwifery (SONAM), Medicine (SOM) and the Fred N. Binka School of Public Health (FNBSPH); reviewing the UHAS flagship vocational training manual; and curriculum development.
He noted that the partnership allowed for two faculty members each from SONAM and FNBSPH to benefit from PhD programmes at Yonsei University, build capacity of beneficiary staff, and organize training workshops for preceptors. He said this partnership also helped retool OIP, and provided support for an anatomy lab at SOM; and, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, Yonsei facilitated the supply of PPE to the University. Yonsei University also supported UHAS with high-tech gadgets for teaching and learning, tablets for field data collection, and some books for SONAM.