SASNET visit to Malmö University departments with South Asia focus

On 8 February 2012, Lars Eklund and Julia Velkova from SASNET visited Malmö University for the second time in a short period, to again meet people involved in South Asia related activities. This time they visited the Faculty of Education and Society, and the Faculty of Odontology.
First they went to the Department of Science, Environment, Society at the Faculty of Education and Society (lärarutbildningen), located in a modern building, Orkanen, with a grand view over Malmö harbour.
Here they met Inge-Marie Svensson (photo), a Lecturer in charge of an optional 15 ECTS credits course, ”Möte med U-land” (Encounter a developing country), that has been offered for teachers training students at Malmö University since 1993. The course focuses on India and is open for all fifth semester students. The students, normally 18 each year but only 9 last year, spend three weeks in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where they do field studies according to individual choice. Due to curriculum reasons, the course planned for September 2012 may however be the last one.
More information on the course, and about the South Asia related research that has been carried out within the department. 

Julia and Lars then took the train for their next destination, the Faculty of Odontology (Tandläkarhögskolan), located just a stone’s throw away from Station Triangeln in central Malmö.
Here they met Dr. Jayanthi Ramanathan Stjernswärd (photo), one of the Directors for the Centre for Oral Health Sciences. She informed about the Centre, that has had an international touch ever since it started in the 1940s. The Centre took an early interest in the dental health problems of the Third World, which made the Centre attractive to the World Health Organization. As a result, the Centre attained the status of a WHO Collaborating Centre for Education, Training & Research in Oral Health in 1987 – one out of 19 such centres worldwide. 
Since 2006, the main task of the Collaborating Centre has been to compile and manage a database about oral health and the dental status in all the member countries of the United Nations. Known as the WHO Oral Health Country/Area Profile Project (acronym CAPP), this extensive database with lot of valuable material also on South Asia, is available on the Internet.
Dr. Jayanthi Stjernswärd also informed about the Centre’s ongoing educational collaboration with South Asia. Dental students have to produce a research paper at the end of their programme, and every year a number of students choose South Asia related research project works, that include a fieldwork stay in the region for a period of 2-3 weeks. Dr. Stjernswärd has assisted several students over the years to go to Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan and India.
More information about the Centre for Oral Health Sciences and the WHO Collaborating Centre.