Journal of Academic Development and Education JADE Issue 8 | Page 24

HIGHLIGHT #1 | 25 24 | JADE CARLOS TURRO, IGNACIO DESPUJOL & JAIME BUSQUETS HIGHLIGHT #1 Title Saudi to Staffs: learning experiences from Saudi Arabian students’ biomedical research visits to Keele University 2011 to 2016 Authors Paul Roach and Mark Smith DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.21252/ KEELE-0000018 Figure 2: Marks comparison in mixed Flipped Teaching courses References Apereo. 2016. Apereo. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.apereo. org. [Accessed 16 December 2016]. MediaUPV. 2016. MediaUPV. [ONLINE] Available at: http://media.upv. es. [Accessed 16 December 2016]. Paella Player. 2016. Paella Player. [ONLINE] Available at: http:// paellaplayer.upv.es. [Accessed 16 December 2016]. Opencast. 2016. Opencast | Media & Education. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.opencast.org. [Accessed 16 December 2016]. Turro, C., Cañero, A. & Busquets, J., 2010. Video learning objects creation with Polimedia. In Proceedings - 2010 IEEE International Symposium on Multimedia, ISM 2010. pp. 371–376. Contact [email protected] Abstract The developing interest in research within Saudi Arabia has emerged over the past decade, particularly being strong within the medical field. The initial concept of the programme, which has remained central to the development of the programme, was to bring the very best academic medical school undergraduates and give them a taste for research within a leading UK framework. The steady growth and success of the programme has led colleagues to ask for some reflections on how it started and how it has been led. For the past six years Keele University’s Research Institute for Science & Technology in Medicine (ISTM) has hosted visits from groups of undergraduate medical students from Saudi Arabia. The developing interest in research within Saudi Arabia has emerged over the past decade, particularly being strong within the medical field. The initial concept of the programme, which has remained central to the development of the programme, was to bring the very best academic medical school undergraduates and give them a taste for research within a leading UK framework. The steady growth and success of the programme has led colleagues to ask for some reflections on how it started and how it has been led. An update (Clarke J, 2016) appeared in a recent edition of JADE which focussed on international activity at Keele. That issue also contained a perspective on a teaching initiative with China (Robinson ZP et al, 2016) and it may be useful to hear from an international programme that is continuing and growing. Next year marks a change of direction in the Saudi visiting medical student programme, due to Dr Paul Roach, one of the leaders from the start, moving from Keele to Loughborough in December 2016. The formation of a new Research Institute for Applied Clinical Sciences within the Faculty of Medical & Health Sciences also means that in future the visits might span more clinical areas of activity. So now seemed to be a good time to take stock of what has been achieved and the experience gained through offering the programme. Initially Keele was one of several UK universities contacted through an independent agent for higher education, on behalf of their client, an unspecified medical school in Saudi Arabia. The specification called for: “…interested universities that would like to undertake a four week research training program from 1st July–31st July 2011 [for] 1st and 2nd year undergraduate medical students in groups of 10 to have exposure to the basic skills required for biomedical research (a maximum of 20 students per university). The core topics of the course should be: 1. Understanding disease mechanism 2. The discovery of disease biomarkers 3. The discovery innovative therapeutic approaches 4. An introduction to research to one or more of the following subject areas: a. Obesity b. Diabetes c. Cancer d. Infectious diseases e. Neurological disease f. Traditional medicine […] a number of key requirements for participating universities. These are as follows: