History and Goals:
The public relations
and international affairs activities of Kermanshah University of Medical
Sciences were approved by the ministry in the form of management and issued to
the institution in the organizational chart of 2015. Based on the documents of programs
and activities to internationalize education, which was presented to the
ministry by the university in 2016, the management was established as an
independent unit. Since 2017, the two management of international affairs and
autonomous campus have been integrated and are working in the form of a single
management unit.
Specific goals based
on upstream documents (20-year vision plan, comprehensive document of
international scientific relations of Iran approved by the Supreme Council of
the Cultural Revolution, and medical education internationalization package:
With regard to the
goals of the 20-year vision plan issued by the Supreme Leader, the university
dedicates efforts to the internationalization of activities in order to achieve
effective and constructive interactions with the world based on principles of
dignity, wisdom, and expediency, increase service production and exports,
organize activities and capacities of the university to increase the country’s
share in global scientific productions, develop bilateral, regional and
international cooperation, strengthen constructive relations with universities
of non-hostile countries, use relations to increase national power, increase
the attraction of foreign investment and resources, and achieve economic
diversity by relying on knowledge and scientific resources, human capital, and
novel technologies.
Other specific goals
of the university include the realization of active scientific diplomacy to
acquire superior and emerging knowledge and technologies and the country's
priority needs, promotion, dissemination and transfer of scientific and
technological achievements of the country in the framework of national
interests and macro-policies of the system, strengthening and developing
transnational protected networks between scientists, students and researchers
of universities and research centers and knowledge-based companies inside and
outside the country, development of a mechanism for attracting and using the
capacity of scientists, researchers, technologists and foreign students,
especially non-resident Iranians, and organization and support of accepting
non-Iranian students and achieving scholarships and sabbatical leaves abroad
based on priorities determined in the upstream documents of the system.
Development of international scientific cooperation such as educational and
university courses, research projects and centers, knowledge-based companies,
scientific journals and joint investment with foreign countries, as well as the
international development of medical science education at the university should
be based on the internationalization program.
Strategies:
- Practical use of successful experiences of other
universities and scientific and medical centers in the internationalization
field
- Increasing the conclusion of research-educational
agreements with other domestic and international institutions
- Presenting short-term educational courses to students
of other non-Iranian institutions (e.g., fellowship, summer school and
observership).
- Inviting teams of officials of other non-Iranian
institutions and sending teams to other countries, especially target
countries, in the medical science plan to introduce the university and
increase its international relations
- Preparing the university’s internationalization
document and operate based on the document
- Improving and updating the university’s websites and
the website of Education Iran based on webometric standards
- Exchanging professors and students with other valid international
institutions of the world with the goal of transferring experiences
- Preparing cultural items for introducing the university
(including introduction video clips, brochures and factbooks) and
installation of banners and stands and trilingual entrance boards
(Persian, English and Kurdish) in different units of the university
- Inaugurating education centers by the university in
target countries of the medical science plan
- Preparing statutes and protocols (focus PDCA diagram)
and procedures in the process (student recruitment) in managing
international affairs
- Presenting incentive packages to faculty members
(paying for the IELTS course and exam for professors and students who have
received a score of five or higher)
- Considering a point in annual promotions of faculty
members who are active in concluding international contracts and
agreements
- Attracting faculty members who are proficient in
English
- Attracting employees fluent in English in international
management and education of faculties
- Establishing a peer-mentoring project in a way that
international students would have access to similar Iranian students in
the same field to receive guidance and get acquainted with the university
and solve possible problems.
- Ongoing consultation and correspondence with the
relevant ministry and governance to solve external threats and problems in
the field of student recruitment such as the lack of inclusion of the
university’s name in the list of approved universities from the
perspective of Iraq.