UKM Research and Educational Mobility Program 2019

From 15th of July to 26th of July 2019, Faculty of Pharmacy, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia have held a Research and Educational Mobility Program 2019 that involved 54 participants from 12 different institutions which came from 5 different countries such as Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Philippines and Vietnam. Universities involved were including Universitas Sumatera Utara, Universitas Jenderal Achmad Yani, Universitas Katholik Widya Mandala, Prince Songkla University, Mahidol University, World Citi College, University of San Agustin, University of Santo Tomas and Our Lady of Fatima University, University Brunei Darusalam and Hanoi University of Pharmacy from Vietnam. The program was held for 12 days and each day of the program was filled with various interesting activities which were focusing on offering experiences for the international students in all areas related to pharmacy in Malaysia through different lectures by the lecturers of Faculty of Pharmacy UKM, lab training which was conducted by Dr Hanisah Azhari, and educational and cultural visits to various interesting attractive destination around Kuala Lumpur and Melaka such as Planetarium, Art Gallery and The Sultanate Museum.

The program is also aiming to offer the students with the opportunity to meet and interact with other international participants and the locals. 13 students from Faculty of Pharmacy were involved as the committees to guide the students during the program. There were seven professorial lectures given throughout the program that cover various different topics such as Teaching and Learning Advance Pharmacy Services in UKM by Dr Ernieda Md Hatah, Nanoparticles in drug delivery which was delivered by Associate Professor Dr Haliza Katas and The future of Immunotherapy by Ms. Syaratul Dalina Yusoff. The students also get to experience the simulation-based learning in clinical education of pharmacy students in our faculty through the visits to Clinical Pharmacy Simulation Lab (Clips) and get their hands-on training in pharmacy practice skills during the introduction of the Objective Structured Public Health Exam (OSPHE) visits.

Other educational visits including visit to Department of Pharmacy Hospital Canselor Tuanku Muhriz where the students get to observe the out-patient services, in-patient services and sterile services provided in Malaysia, visits to Pharmaniaga Berhard and Nature Wellness Sdn Bhd, Malaysian pharmaceutical companies that carry out their business as the manufacturers, exporters, importer and distributor of pharmaceuticals products and medicines and also visits to Forest Research Institution Malaysia (FRIM) in Kepong where the students learned more about local herbs and plants we have here in Malaysia.

A few cultural activities were also conducted such as visit to Putrajaya, visit to the heritage city of Malacca, visit to Batu Caves and visits to Umieaktif where the students were able to explore attraction and the diversity in Malaysia and they were also involved in providing community services to some of underprivileged group of people.

The program ended in a closing ceremony attended by the Dean of Faculty of Pharmacy, Associate Professor Dr. Jamia Azdina Jamal, Professor Anbel Bautiste, Lecturer from Our Lady of Fatima University, Mr Klint, Lecturer from San Agustin University and lecturers of Faculty of Pharmacy UKM. Participants also present their cultural performances during the closing ceremony.

On the last night of the event, we gathered all of the participants at Dataran Merdeka to have each countries introduce their cultural attire and food :) As committees, we were the representative of Malaysia sp we bought the students some kuih muih from the stalls near the faculty and Jessica, our only chinese committee bought a mooncake to share with everyone. It was a really fun sharing session despite having problem organising and selecting the most suitable place for everyone to gather. To make matter worse, it rained that night! But, we proceed with the sharing session anyway :D

I, personally am very grateful that I took this chance to join this program. I learnt a lot, all thanks to Dr Mazlina, Cik Noor, Khaixin, former Biro Hubungan Antarabangsa and the rest of the committees that joined especially the seniors. I hope that the friendship formed during this programme can last a lifetime and that the memories that we shared will never fade away. Till next time! Hopefully this programme can be continued in the future!

Written by :

Anis Sofiah, Committees of Inbound Mobility Programme