By Leonard Kamugisha Akida,
KAMPALA
KIU, IUIU on Thursday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Acibadem University in the Republic of Turkiye to enable collaborations and promote health sciences between the three institutions.
The signing took place at KIU Senate Boardroom, Kansanga . Dr. Mouhamad Mpezamihigo, the Vice Chancellor for KIU signed on behalf of KIU while Dr. Ismail Simbwa Gyagenda, Rector IUIU signed on behalf of IUIU. The deputy CEO of Acibadem Healthcare Group, Rasim Topuz signed on behalf of the group.
Speaking to journalists shortly after the signing, Topuz noted that the partnership will see the three institutions exchange students, staff, technology and sharing of academic materials to improve capacity building and education amongst parties.
The KIU VC, Dr. Mpezamihigo commended Acibadem University for choosing to partner with KIU and asked the group to leverage on to the university resources such as the KIU Teaching Hospital in Ishaka to promote health sciences. He added that the university has a lot of innovation strategies which partners can tap into and share available resources.
“We want to build a cancer institute at our KIU-Western Campus teaching hospital, can we work together because we know you have the capacity and we have human resources you can tap into and share available resources? ” Dr. Mpezamihigo said.
He also said KIU will use the partnership to make patient referrals from KIU hospital and other regional referral hospitals they partner with to seek treatment at Acibadem hospital in Turkiye at a subside.
On the other hand, Prof. Ismail Gyagenda, the Rector IUIU said they will consider partnering to promote health sciences in the new collaborations because the university is mooting plot to set up own teaching hospital on their prime land in the heart of Kampala.
Prof Gyagenda, Rector of IUIU …….. ///
The ambassador of Uganda to Turkiye, Hon. Nusura Tiperu who influenced this partnership said they (government) is pushing on another partnership between the ministry of education and Turkish government which will see many Turkish organizations and universities collaborate with universities in Uganda.
“The system of our country has changed. We are moving from being ambassadors who go for cocktails but ambassadors who focus on commercial diplomacy,” Hon. Tiperu said adding that the vision for these partnerships is to have more industries in Uganda and support universities industrial strategies.
According to Tiperu, the MoU between KIU IUIU and Acibadem University will translate into more collaborations between Uganda and Turkish government.
“This MoU is going to translate into a lot of collaborations in terms of exchange for students, knowledge transfer, provision of scholarships in some of our strategic areas like health and education, ” Tiperu said.
