-UWE officials visit to assess possibilities
TEXILA  American University (TAU), launched in Guyana in September 2010, is progressing steadily. And with the first programme, the MD (Doctor of Medicine), up and running, the university is now fine-tuning arrangements for the introduction of a nursing programme to be conducted in collaboration with the University of the West of England (UWE). Plans are afoot for the collabortive nursing programme to commence in April 2012.  To this end, top officials of UWE recently visited the TAU’s campus facility, located at Woolford Avenue in Georgetown,  with a view to making a formal review of the facilities and learning resources for the upcoming programme, which is to be conducted jointly by the two universities.
The visiting officials — Professor Helen Langton, the  Pro Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean; and Professor  Steven Neill, the Deputy Dean of the UWE (Faculty of Health Sciences) — arrived in Guyana on February 27 for a one-day visit, during which much was accomplished, according to Mr. Ashok Kumar, the International Operations Manager at TAU, who spoke with this newspaper.
Kumar said the agenda of the visit included the review of curriculum; classrooms; library; nursing skills; and laboratories and other learning resources available at TAU. He added that the outcome of the visit of the UWE officials was positive, noting that TAU is looking at going forward with the collaboration immediately.

According to Kumar, Texila American University believes that the upcoming collaboration can benefit the Nursing students of TAU in many ways, including:

•    Adaptation of the standardised curriculum of UWE;
•    Option to choose pathway programmes, enabling the student to do the first part of the programme in Guyana, and the second part in the United Kingdom; and
•    Getting the professional expertise of UWE to raise the standards followed during the course of the Nursing education at TAU.

The programme intake, scheduled for next May, will also be taken for review by the General Nursing Council of Guyana and the National Accreditation Council of Guyana for their respective formal approval.
Kumar outlined that UWE has consistently been one of Britain’s leading universities for quality in teaching, and has a strong research tradition and history.  “They are a very reputable university, located in Bristol, and have around 35,000 students on their campus. We are looking at bringing out a premier nursing programme with good curriculum when it comes to training, and all the expertise will be brought out by them,” Kumar said.
Theoretical aspects will be done on the local campus, and clinical orientations will be done at the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC).
Meanwhile, TAU currently offers the Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) programmes on campus, and has more than 65 students in its Medical programme.  Aside from Guyanese, others in the student population hail from countries such as India, Africa and the United States of America.
Said Ashok Kumar: “TAU is working towards its goal of playing a major role in attracting international students to Guyana – a country which has all required resources to become the educational hub of the Caribbean and South American region.”
He added that the upcoming collaborative Nursing programme will be one of the university’s key programmes, with a mandate of moving towards TAU’s goal by attracting a good number of students from neighbouring countries.