| Communications and Development |  |
Published by Communications and Development
New Zealand’s longest running speech-language therapy programme and one of Kuwait’s newest academic programmes have established a new international link.
Earlier this month Dr Tareq Al-Shatti, Head of the Department of Communication Science and Languages at the University of Kuwait, visited the University of Canterbury and while on campus signed a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) between his department and UC’s Department of Communication Disorders. Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Science) Professor Ian Shaw and Professor Michael Robb (Communication Disorders) met with Dr Al-Shatti to work out the details of the MOU.
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(Left to right) Professor Michael Robb, Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Science) Professor Ian Shaw and Dr Tareq Al-Shatti. |
The Department of Communication Sciences and Languages in the College For Women at the University of Kuwait is a relatively new programme, established just five years ago. The college was specifically created with the
aim to provide high-quality university-level education for female students in professional areas that have historically been underrepresented in Kuwait.
Professor Robb has visited the programme twice in the past year, providing consultation on its curriculum.
“As a result of these visits we were keen to do something more collaboratively and this prompted Tareq’s visit here,” Professor Robb said.
The MOU provides a framework for staff and students of the two university departments to share expertise and engage in joint academic and scholarly activities. It opens up the possibility of faculty and postgraduate student
exchanges, research collaboration and student internships.
Professor Robb said there was a severe shortage of speech-language therapists in Kuwait and, as training in that profession had not been offered in the country until 2003, most speech-language therapists working there were foreigners with just a few locals who had trained overseas.
“As the Kuwait programme is short-staffed, one of the things we talked about was sharing staff from UC for short-term visits. I think this would be an exciting experience for our staff and lead to a broader understanding of
educational and clinical models of speech-language therapy in another culture,” he said.
At present the Kuwait programme only offers a four-year bachelor degree that is closely modelled on the Bachelor of Speech-Langauge Therapy at UC, so Dr Al-Shatti also discussed opportunities for his students to come to UC
for postgraduate education.
“For starters Kuwait University will offer two scholarships for students who want to come to Canterbury to pursue masters and PhD level research in speech-language therapy. These scholarships are a really positive step that will benefit both institutions as the plan would be for students to go back on staff at Kuwait and help build up their academic staff capacity and we would be gaining students to help our research programme,” said Professor Robb.
“This newly forged relationship could also lead to research funding opportunities. We would be in an excellent position to seek funding from Kuwaiti agencies for joint research projects.”
Professor Robb said the agreement was part of a larger vision to institute a memorandum of understanding between the two colleges — UC’s College of Science and Kuwait’s College For Women — sometime in the future.
For further information please contact:
Maria De Cort
Communications Officer
University of Canterbury
Ph: (03) 364 2987 ext 6072
maria.decort@canterbury.ac.nz