2021 Year in Review
Under the direction of Carol Gregorio, PhD and her administrative team, and in partnership with leadership from each of the five Health Sciences colleges, UArizona Health Sciences Global and Online had a productive year full of collaboration, innovation and progress.
Collaborative, Multidisciplinary Leadership
This year, Global and Online partnered with an extensive network of collaborators across the university to work toward expanding global and online academic offerings to meet the needs of the next generation of health care professionals – at home and abroad.
These leaders are highlighted in a newly launched series called Meet the Innovators, in which each month a member of the Global and Online executive leadership committee is interviewed about the plans and progress towards online and global education in their respective college and how they are contributing to the central vision of reshaping the future of global health care education, research and practice.
New Online Health Sciences Courses
With the support of Global and Online, the five Health Sciences colleges have been able to offer 100+ new credit hours of online coursework for the 2021-2022 academic year, each expanding their existing online catalogs. The new courses cover a variety of innovative and timely topics, including ethics in aging, virology, global nursing, maternal and child health, and pharmaceutics.
Graduate Interdisciplinary Program in Innovations in Aging
Global and Online successfully led the development of a fully online interdisciplinary graduate certificate program in Innovations in Aging, designed to prepare local and global health care professionals to meet the needs of older adults. The graduate certificate program admitted its first student in fall.
In conjunction with the launch of the Innovations in Aging graduate certificate program came the production of a podcast of the same name. The Innovations in Aging Podcast interviews experts in aging from across the university and serves as supplemental content to complement the coursework in the program. The monthly episodes are available for consumption around the world.
Expanded Global Education and Research Opportunities
Last spring, the University of Arizona and The University of Western Australia formalized a partnership in the hopes of offering joint degree programs, including a global doctor of medicine degree. It was proposed that students enrolled in the degree programs spend time on both campuses and receive credentials from both universities. Further conceptualization and development of the global MD program is now underway.
The University of Arizona Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health celebrated the first two graduates of the Dual Master of Public Health program, a collaboration between the University of Arizona and Gulf Medical University in Ajman, United Arab Emirates. A new cohort of nine students began the program in October 2021.
The cellular and molecular medicine dual-degree program at the Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham University global microcampus in India celebrated their first graduates as well, including Nishtha Desai, who in a Global and Online interview praised the program, saying, “I felt like I was learning things larger than life.” The program also welcomed a new incoming class, and now has approximately 60 students enrolled.
This fall Global and Online expanded access to research for Amrita students by introducing in-person and remote research internships with cellular and molecular medicine faculty members. Importantly, this flexible model creates more opportunities for global students to access UArizona research and is something that can be implemented in future global Health Sciences programs.
These short- and long-term efforts are part of the push to close global health care education and health care delivery gaps. Global and Online not only is positioning high quality health sciences education within reach for more students today, it also is paving the way for the introduction of new global partnership, degree programs and worldwide research opportunities in the future. More to come in 2022.