A team from the University of Minnesota (UMN) led by Dr. Frank B. Cerra , Senior Vice President for Health Sciences & Dean, Medical School, UMN and Dr. Harriet Mayanja-Kizza, Deputy Dean, School of Medicine, CHS, paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor on 4th February 2010.

A team from the University of Minnesota (UMN) led by Dr. Frank B. Cerra , Senior Vice President for Health Sciences & Dean, Medical School, UMN and Dr. Harriet Mayanja-Kizza, Deputy Dean, School of Medicine, CHS, paid a courtesy call on the Vice Chancellor on 4th February 2010.

They were met by Prof. Lillian Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza, the Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Academic Affairs, on behalf of the Acting Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba.

The team, which arrived in the country on 31st January 2010 spent time touring facilities at the Mulago Teaching and Referral Hospitals, the Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI) and were very impressed with the work done with HIV/AIDS, especially as its closely connected to ongoing research. They also expressed great interest in collaborating on Distance Education Programmes at Certificate, Diploma and Degree levels.

The President also shared the idea of model programmes in UMN like the Midlevel Dental Provider programme , which gives students a rigorous three year training course and after graduating, they can perform some of the dental procedures like tooth extraction, filling and other simple dental procedures as required by the community. He hoped that when some agreements were finally signed with Makerere, some of these programmes could be implemented.

Dr. Mayanja-Kizza appreciated the University of Minnesota’s efforts in nurturing the young academics from the CHS who have benefited from interactions like Student/Staff exchanges and Graduate research supervision, citing Dr. David Meya, Infectious Diseases Institute (IDI), who benefited from supervision by Prof Paul Bohjanen of UMN.

Prof. Tibatemwa-Ekirikubinza thanked the University of Minnesota team for their contributions towards CHS that have contributed to vibrant innovative research by the College. She appreciated the timing of the visit, which coincides with the University’s preparation to implement the ten-year strategic plan, noting that any agreements would fit in perfectly with plans to implement crosscutting programmes, and aspects of Quality Assurance, Internationalization and Gender Mainstreaming. She further expressed her gratitude towards the UMN teaming for recognizing that they indeed had something to learn from their Ugandan counterparts, noting that it was through reciprocal collaboration that such partnerships could be sustained.

Also in the team was, Dr. Robert J. Jones , Senior Vice President, System Academic Administration; Prof. John R. Finnegan , Assistant Vice President for Public Health; Dr. Ashley Haase , Head, Microbiology; Diana Harvey , Assistant Dean, School of Public Health; Meredith McQuaid , Dean, International Programs and Prof Paul Bohjanen of the Department of Medicine. From the College of Health Sciences were Dr. David Guwatudde, Deputy Dean, MUSPH ; Dr. Moses Kamya, Head, Department of Medicine; Dr. David Meya, Department of Medicine/IDI and Dr. Robert O. Opoka, Department of Pediatrics & Child Health.