On February 4-6, 2013 a delegation composed of Dr Anne-Marie Reid, Dr. Richard Fuller and Elaine Brock, the coordinators of the MUMEENA project from the Leeds Institute of Medical Education, University of Leeds visited Azerbaijan. The aim of the visit was to attend field monitoring and to meet with Azerbaijani partners from the partner universities, AMU and NSU to discuss the further activities in connection with the project plan.

On the first day of the visit, the delegation met with the rector of AMU academician, Prof. A.Amiraslanov. During the meeting project activities regarding the direction of the modernizing of medical education in Azerbaijan Medical University within the framework of the TEMPUS programme were discussed.  The rector emphasized that participation in the TEMPUS project is a significant event for the university and that the administration is very interested in new projects and collaboration with European Union universities in the fields of science and education. The first day of the visit also included a meeting with key representatives of AMU and NSU to discuss financial issues and reporting documentation.  

The second day of the visit involved participation of the Head of the NTO in Azerbaijan, Parviz Baghirov, and the representative of the Ministry of Education, Tamilla Aliyeva.  The representatives from AMU who attended the Field Monitoring were the Head of the International Office, Associate Prof Rahima Gabulova, the Head of the Innovations Department, Prof Akif Gurbanov, the Head of the newly established Teachers Training Center (TTC), Associate Prof Ismail Afandiyev and the lead for establishing the OSCE laboratory, Associate Prof Nadir Zeynalov.  Field Monitoring representatives from NSU included the Dean of the Medical Faculty, Bahruz Mammadov, and faculty member Elmar Rzayev.  The discussions during the meeting centred around the move towards greater curriculum integration in the medical undergraduate programmes, the faculty development programme for TTCs and developing CBCR and RSC modules for AMU and NSU.  Parviz Baghirov, The NTO representative made a number of favourable comments regarding the effective communication, strength of partnership working and progress being made by both universities.

Dr A.M. Reid and Dr R. Fuller delivered lectures for Azerbaijani partners on Faculty Development planning, assessment and OSCE principles and design.  Discussion were also held regarding the planning of the MUMEENA conference event which will be held at AMU from 21^st – 24^th October. 

During the visit the Leeds team was treated to some typical Azeri hospitality including a tour of the old city, dinner at a traditional Azeri restaurant and a visit to the famous site of Zoroastrian worship, the Atashgah Fire Temple.

Dear Partners, I hope that you all returned safely from the conference in Kiev and that our hosts at NMU are recovering from the event! I would like to thank the Rector, Marina and the staff at NMU for the wonderful efforts they made to prepare for the conference and for their hospitality.  I think the event was  a great success and there was evidence of very good progress in the project from all partners.
One of the highlights for me was in meeting the students who looked after us so well and were a credit to the University.  I am attaching a photo of some of them with Trudie in front of the MUMEENA banner.  I am hoping that the students form all of our partner countries will use this site to set up a network which will enable them to share experiences and feedback on how our progress is affecting them.  So please feel free to add your comments!
Anne-Marie

(MUMEENA) is an ongoing collaboration with four EU partners experienced in Medical Education that has led to this successful and very exciting TEMPUS project. This is a 36 month project involving four EU Medical Schools and three partner countries. The Countries collaborating on the project are: Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Georgia, Netherlands, Italy, Spain and United Kingdom.