February 2011 NUMed Enewsletter

The countdown begins to campus opening in August this year. Everything is on track and progressing
well. Below is a brief update. For further information and regular news please visit the NUMed website
www.newcastle.edu.my/

Campus
Recent photos of the campus show the rapid progress
being made. A replica of the Newcastle University UK’s
famous arches and ‘Bells Door’, the entrance to the original
Medical School, are now nearing completion, and give a
real Newcastle ‘feel’ to the new campus. Carpets are being
laid and importantly, the cafeteria is all but complete! All
the buildings will be ready by March, and the NUMed team
are looking forward to moving in to prepare for the
students’ arrival.

Malaysian Deputy Director General of Health visits Newcastle

The Medical School in the UK was honoured to host the visit of
Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Bin Abdullah, Malaysian Deputy Director
General of Health (Medical) on the 20th October 2010.

Hisham attended the Board of Medical Studies and NUMed

Malaysia Advisory Group where detailed talks assisted the
curriculum group with future developments. He was taken on a
tour of some of the key facilities by NUMed Malaysia’s Dean of
Academic Affairs, Dr Phil Bradley. He was impressed by the Clinical
Skills Lab and observing the students’ dissection class (being a
surgeon himself). He then enjoyed meeting Erika Gavillet the head Medical Librarian and seeing what
level of facilities we intend to provide for the campus in Malaysia. He was impressed by the teaching-
related IT infrastructure such as the Learning Support Environment and the new Teaching Support
Environment, demonstrated by Dr Tony McDonald, Assistant Director for the School of Medical Sciences
Education Development. Hisham participated in a continued professional development session on
“Fitness to Practice”. The concept of Continued Professional Development is not as well developed in
Malaysia, so this was of great interest. The culmination of Hisham’s visit however was meeting for lunch
with some of the current NUMed students, who were equally pleased at the opportunity to meet with
someone so eminent.

Can you spot the non-students in the above photograph? Dr Steve Jones, inaugural Dean of Clinical Affairs, is
third from left.

Staffing
The ever expanding
NUMed team now in post
consist of (from left to
right) Muhathir Muhamad
Nor, HR Senior Manager; Liz
Smith, Chief Operating
Officer; Reg Jordan, Chief
Executive Officer; Jeffery Cheng (back), Facilities Senior Manager; Shalini Prem-Kumar (front), Admin
Manager; and Hani Idayu Shuhaimi, Admissions Executive/Accounts Executive.

Dr Phil Bradley, Dean of Academic Affairs, and Dr Steve Jones, Dean of Clinical Affairs are currently
preparing to relocate to Malaysia in April to join the rest of the NUMed team in preparing to welcome
students.

We have appointed an excellent clinical and non-clinical teaching faculty, able to cover all of the courses,
with many having already taught on the Newcastle University MBBS. In all we have a good multi-potential
mix of UK, International and Malaysian doctors which includes staff who have experience of teaching the
Newcastle MB.BS course: further updates in future newsletters.
Continuing Medical Education Event with RCP

Newcastle University / NUMed Malaysia,

in association with The Royal College of
Physicians, will be holding the first
International “Acute Medical
Emergencies” Continuing Medical
Education (CME) Conference this month
at the Thistle, Johor Bahru. The event is
supported by the Malaysian Ministry of
Health, and the Director General himself
has requested an opportunity to speak on
“Achieving excellence in Clinical Training - Effective supervision, feedback, assessment and teaching”.
This event will include Medical Education Workshops and there is a further interactive event on Clinical
Case Management at one of NUMed Malaysia’s partner hospitals, the new Hospital Sultan Ismail.

Guest speakers include Professor Sir Ian Gilmore, past President of Royal College of Physicians of London,
Professor Derek Bell, Professor of Acute Medicine, Imperial College London, educators from the RCP and
our very own Dr Steve Jones and Dr Lesley Young (to name but a few). For further details please see the
link on the NUMed CME page www.ncl.ac.uk/numed/cme . Please forward details to colleagues and
interested parties in SE Asia.
The organisers are thrilled at the Malaysian Ministry’s support for
the event and the increasing magnitude, if a little daunted that
their local event to support their new colleagues at the partner
hospitals is now an international phenomenon, with suggestions
that this could become an annual event....

Student recruitment
The NUMed Team and faculty from the UK have had a busy start to the
New Year as they have been interviewing lots of students in Kuala Lumpur,
Nusajaya and the UK in order to recruit to the 3rd cohort who will
commence their studies at the brand new campus in Malaysia this August.
Many students have already been interviewed and offered places and they
will join the first cohort who have been studying in the Medical School in the UK until the campus is built.
Current NUMed student, Zulhilmi Ibrahim says “We are looking forward to meeting the new cohort of
students at the Malaysian campus and sharing our experience of the programme so far”.
The Awarding of the first TM Teoh Scholarship

Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed Malaysia) and Newcastle University thank Robert Teoh
for his generous gift dedicated to academic prizes to be awarded to outstanding NUMed Malaysia
students.

This year saw the first awarding of the scholarships

to two students in the very first cohort of
Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed
Malaysia). Professor Reg Jordan (NUMed Malaysia
Chief Executive Officer) presented the awards, of
£500 (RM2,500) each, to the two hardworking
students in recognition of their achievement in
Stage 1 of the course, on his visit to the UK in
October. Khausar Binti Hazman received her award
from Professor Jordan at a lunch with fellow NUMed Malaysia students (pictured), Nafisah Binti Abdul
Rashid unfortunately was unable to attend but was honoured to receive the award at a later date.

It is anticipated that 40 students will benefit from the “Robert Teoh” award over the coming years.
Robert is a Newcastle University MBBS graduate, living and practicing in his home country, Singapore.
His generosity is in support of the quality education of Malaysian doctors in their home country, the
mission of Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia (NUMed Malaysia).

That’s it for now

We hope this short update has been interesting, the next newsletter will contain details of student
accommodation and support, along with an update on the completed campus and the inaugural faculty –
if you would like any more information please look at the website www.newcastle.edu.my , meet the
current cohorts of students on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=247046255441 or
get in touch with us at hani.shuhaimi@ncl.ac.uk