News and Events

BU Professor acts as catalyst to strengthen health research in Nepal

13 April 2010

Professor Edwin van Teijlingen has presented his review of all health-related curricula in Nepal.

The first consultative workshop in Kathmandu, held on 13 April, aims to provide a forum for teachers and librarians from all four universities in Nepal to discuss improvement to the teaching of, and access to, research-based information in the many health disciplines.

Professor van Teijlingen, who has an extensive background in health care research in Nepal, has developed a partnership with Tribhuvan University – Nepal, the University of Aberdeen and the Development Resource Centre, an NGO in Kathmandu to host the workshop.

The partnership relates to improving Access to Research Literature for Higher Education Institutions in Nepal (PARI) and aims to make lecturers more aware of the worldwide electronic literature to use it critically. This is achieved through sensitising staff to identify health resource information and changing attitudes towards the importance of research-based or evidence-based practice.

The workshop itself will primarily outline key analyses of current health curricula in Nepal, addressing the gaps in learning research at Nepalese universities. It will also cover results from a survey conducted with 175 university teachers, focus groups with students and interviews with senior university staff.

Professor Dr Ram Sharan Pathak from TU’s Central Department of Population Studies leading the project said: "The first phase of this collaboration between Nepal and the UK has already identified key issues we need to address in our training programme in the next phase". The next phase of PARI in year two focuses on the development of learning networks to spread the evidence of best practice as found.