The “Transformative Competency-Based Public Health Education for Professional Employability in Bangladesh’s Health Sector (Trans4m-PH)” project is a 3-year (2019-22) Erasmus+ project funded by the European Commission. The aim of the project is to design and offer indigenous competency based public health curricula which sustain professional employability in Bangladesh’s health sector.
The objective of the project is to upgrade priority public health courses to Competency-Based Public Health Curricula in 3 Bangladeshi Public Health Higher Education providers: BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University (BRAC JPGSPH); Asian University for Women (AUW); and International Centre for Climate Change and Development at Independent University, Bangladesh (ICCCAD-IUB). The Project’s European capacity-building technical partners are Maastricht University (UM), Netherlands and Institute of Development Studies (IDS), University of Sussex, United Kingdom. BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, BRAC University is the Lead Coordinator in the project.
BRAC JPGSPH, ICCCAD-IUB and AUW identified systemic challenges to their Public Health Curricula in the interrelated areas of course structure and faculties with less or no orientation with competency based teaching methodologies. In encountering faculty-centered, didactic lecture, rote-learning classrooms, students graduate without the competency based skills required in their professional lives. The partners recognize the economic imperative for Higher Education transformation to develop successive generations of professionals to positively impact the public health sector. Partners will ultimately invigorate their respective mandates of educational excellence, while averting the impending quality crisis across the Higher Education sector.
This model must be systemically redesigned around the student learner’s competency development by introducing the following four interdependent components in their academic learning endeavour:
1. Public Health Competency-based Curriculum
2. Public Health Learning Methodologies
3. Faculty Facilitator Development
4. Faculty Professional Skills Training
Participation of IUB in this international project
IUB in conjunction with ICCCAD (IUB-ICCCAD) will redesign the curricula of three modules from their graduate and undergraduate programme to make it student centric and competency based and the faculty will receive training for teaching these modules.
Year 1 (2019)
Title of the Course Climate Change and Health (CCD507)
Team Members: Dr. Md. Nadiruzzaman, Ms. Karishma Sinha, & Ms. Tania Ahmed
Academic Programme and Learning Outcomes: This course is part of the graduate program in Climate Change and Health (MSc CCD). By the end of the course students will have developed skills that would benefit them in their professional careers. The main focus of the course is applying systems thinking to the interface of climate change and health, such as conceptual understanding, theory building, analytical and critical thinking skills. The course further builds on communication skills including collaboration, advocacy, leadership and research skills. The course will bring together professionals of diverse disciplines to de-learn their perceptions on climate change and public health while learning about the intersection of the two from the course materials, facilitator, and classmates of all age groups and nationalities.
Year 2 (2020)
Title of the Course Climate Change and Society (ENV415)
Team Members: Dr. K. A. Rabbani, Mr. Md. Ekhtekharul Islam & Mr. Saquib Ahmed Khan
Academic Programme and Learning Outcomes: This is a final year course in the undergraduate program (BSc in Environmental Science and Management). The outcome of this course is to have an understanding of the science of climate change, as well as its impact on society, specifically in the development, environment and public health sectors. Be able to understand and critically analyze the latest information on climate change available on the internet, newspapers and magazines and be able to differentiate between climate change facts and biased misinformation. Learners will be able to communicate appropriate climate change information to the relevant stakeholders on best practices. Be able to synthesize information related to climate change in Bangladesh to develop a climate change adaptation project for a specific sector and/or region of Bangladesh.
Year 3 (2021)
Title of the Course Disaster Risk Reduction (ENV530)
Team Members: Mr. Md. Ekhtekharul Islam. Mr. Tanhir Ahmed Haroun & Ms. Tahmina Sultana
Academic Programme and Learning Outcomes: This course is part of the graduate program in Environment Management (MSc Env. Mgmt.). The objective of this course is to provide learners a clear understanding and knowledge of hazard and disaster, domains of vulnerability, indicators of resilience and well-being, impacts, and livelihood consequences of disasters in various contexts. To enhance students’ knowledge regarding the practical processes of hazard identification, assessment of community risk perception, risk prioritization, communication, and requirements for risk assessment. To offer students an in-depth understanding of DRR policies and institutional mechanisms to formulate disaster management approaches in different geographical and socio-cultural contexts and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of those approaches. To develop students’ capacity to critically evaluate the principles and practices of disaster risk reduction efforts and participate in the debate of DRR governance.
To know more, please click here: http://trans4mph.org/