WMA calls for retired academics to teach in developing world
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《英国医生杂志》
The World Medical Association (WMA) has called for retired medical academics to consider registering on a new database that has been set up to help universities in developing countries.
Around half of today抯 higher education students live in developing countries, but these countries often see promising staff and students heading overseas in search of better money and conditions.
For universities in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere, such a "brain drain" means that finding senior academic staff can be difficult. The retired academics database was launched last autumn by the Association of Commonwealth Universities in London to help deal with this problem.
Universities that need to recruit staff in particular fields can specify their requirements to the association online. Staff then search the database for a candidate with matching experience and pass the details on to the university, which pays a small charge for the information.
Since the database opened for universities to use in September 2003 a quarter of the requests have been for subject areas in medicine, such as anaesthesiology, pathology, gynaecology, and radiology, the World Medical Association said.
In contrast to the demand for medical staff, the supply has been small. Of the 700 academic staff registered on the database, hardly any have been in medical disciplines, a spokeswoman for the project said.
"We only have 18 candidates in medicine and 24 in subjects allied to medicine, such as health sciences," she said. "So we would really welcome further registrations in these fields."
"We urgently need to encourage more medical academics to register on this database," said WMA抯 president, Dr James Appleyard. "The health gap between rich and poor nations is growing, and the only way to bridge that gap long term is to train more health professionals worldwide," he said.
The WMA was backing the database so "people realise when they are retiring . . . there抯 still a major contribution to be made," he added. "An enormous amount of work can be done by teaching doctors in these countries."
The database is open to academic staff from anywhere in the world, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities will also deal with requests from universities in any country. It has received more than 40 requests for assistance since opening for business, from countries such as Botswana, Nigeria, and countries in the Caribbean.
Although the system is mostly aimed at academic staff nearing retirement, it also accepts people at an earlier stage in their careers who would be interested in short-term contracts in the developing world, from three months to two years.
In January it placed its first candidate overseas, providing the British Council with a consultant to work on an education project funded by the Department for International Development. The assignment involves working with higher education institutions in the south of Iraq.(London Stephen Pincock)
Around half of today抯 higher education students live in developing countries, but these countries often see promising staff and students heading overseas in search of better money and conditions.
For universities in Africa, Asia, and elsewhere, such a "brain drain" means that finding senior academic staff can be difficult. The retired academics database was launched last autumn by the Association of Commonwealth Universities in London to help deal with this problem.
Universities that need to recruit staff in particular fields can specify their requirements to the association online. Staff then search the database for a candidate with matching experience and pass the details on to the university, which pays a small charge for the information.
Since the database opened for universities to use in September 2003 a quarter of the requests have been for subject areas in medicine, such as anaesthesiology, pathology, gynaecology, and radiology, the World Medical Association said.
In contrast to the demand for medical staff, the supply has been small. Of the 700 academic staff registered on the database, hardly any have been in medical disciplines, a spokeswoman for the project said.
"We only have 18 candidates in medicine and 24 in subjects allied to medicine, such as health sciences," she said. "So we would really welcome further registrations in these fields."
"We urgently need to encourage more medical academics to register on this database," said WMA抯 president, Dr James Appleyard. "The health gap between rich and poor nations is growing, and the only way to bridge that gap long term is to train more health professionals worldwide," he said.
The WMA was backing the database so "people realise when they are retiring . . . there抯 still a major contribution to be made," he added. "An enormous amount of work can be done by teaching doctors in these countries."
The database is open to academic staff from anywhere in the world, and the Association of Commonwealth Universities will also deal with requests from universities in any country. It has received more than 40 requests for assistance since opening for business, from countries such as Botswana, Nigeria, and countries in the Caribbean.
Although the system is mostly aimed at academic staff nearing retirement, it also accepts people at an earlier stage in their careers who would be interested in short-term contracts in the developing world, from three months to two years.
In January it placed its first candidate overseas, providing the British Council with a consultant to work on an education project funded by the Department for International Development. The assignment involves working with higher education institutions in the south of Iraq.(London Stephen Pincock)