University of Tasmania, Australia

Signing of the MOU between UNDANA and UTAS October 2011 Prof Franz Datta (Rector) and Dr Sean Beggs (UTAS, FOHG)

The University of Nusa Cendana, colloquially called UNDANA, is situated in Kupang, in the Eastern Indonesian province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT), which includes West Timor. The University has a new medical school and the first cohort of students will graduate in 2013. The Flinders Overseas Health Group (FOHG), an Adelaide-based, not-for-profit humanitarian group of doctors and other health professionals, has been visiting this region for many years. They have been providing health assistance and education programs with an aim to teach and upskill the local staff towards self-sufficiency through a combination of formal teaching and clinical mentoring.

One of the key members of FOHG is Dr Sean Beggs MBBS, FRACP, MPH who is a general paediatrician and clinical pharmacologist who has a longstanding commitment to child health in the Asia Pacific region. He is also a senior lecturer at the School of Medicine and staff specialist at the Royal Hobart Hospital. Sean has extended the clinical links through his work with FOHG to now include a growing academic collaboration with UNDANA.

This has culminated in a whole of university Memorandum of Understanding between UNDANA and UTAS. While this will initially focus on collaboration with our Schools of Medicine, there is capacity for other schools and faculties at UTAS to develop their own collaborations with UNDANA. The MOU paves the ways for staff and student exchanges, sharing curriculum, collaborative research and community development programs.