Ashraf Shoma, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Mansoura University, received on Sunday Allan Pacey, Interim Vice-President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine, and Health at the University of Manchester in England, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of fruitful cooperation between the two universities. Mansoura University said in a statement that the cooperation protocol has caused a radical transformation in the medical education system since the beginning of cooperation with the University of Manchester in 2005–2006, as the Manchester Program contributed to changing the teaching and learning methods and establishing a new system based on a problem-solving methodology instead of traditional courses.
Since the partnership's launch in 2005, Shoma said, the "Mansoura-Manchester" medical program has transformed medical education in Egypt. Studies began in 2006 and have been able to establish a new system for teaching and learning.
He added that the Faculty of Medicine at Mansoura University was the first in Egypt to launch a qualitative program in an international partnership. The idea, which was novel and innovative at the time, aimed to transform the traditional curriculum-based approach to medical education. We shifted the program to focus on solving medical problems by presenting students with a health problem and encouraging them to find solutions. Additionally, we transitioned from teaching in large lecture halls to small groups.
He pointed out that by initiating faculty members from Mansoura University to teach in the Manchester program, the teaching system expanded to the regular program, bringing about a new change in the traditional system. The Manchester idea began to spread throughout the university, reaching not only the Faculty of Dentistry and the Faculty of Pharmacy at Mansoura University, but also Alexandria University and other Egyptian universities.
The Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Mansoura explained that the University of Manchester is ranked 5 or 6 in England among the top universities, so it was chosen as one of the largest medical colleges because England has 300 universities and they had a large medical volume.
For his part, Pacey confirmed that he came to Mansoura University to think about what could be done in the future and suggested that Egyptian students be integrated with students in Manchester in joint scientific research.
He added that the University of Manchester is 201 years old and was the first university to operate a health service hospital in England, noting that World Health Organization reports say that in 2030 there will be a deficit of 10 million doctors worldwide.
Pacey said, "In Mansoura, there is a powerful machine for manufacturing doctors that we may not find in many places in the world, and I find that the tools available here for students are very large and sometimes exceed those available in Manchester."
