First Teesside graduation ceremony in Malaysia

The University of Teesside's Vice-Chancellor will travel half way round the world from Great Britain to Malaysia to personally congratulate the first students to graduate from the English university's health degree taught by distance learning in Kuala Lumpur.

Professor Derek Fraser, Vice-Chancellor of the Middlesbrough-based University (in the North East of England) and Paul Keane, Director of Teesside University's School of Health & Social Care, will be joined by Professor Dr Ibrahim Abu Shah, Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) in Malaysia and Professor Dr Abd Rahim Md Noor, Dean of the UiTM Medical Faculty at the convocation ceremony, to be held on Tuesday 17 December in the Hilton Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur.

Around 30 students will be graduating from the BSc (Hons) Applied Rehabilitation degree from the University of Teesside. The students are all practicing physiotherapists and occupational therapists and the graduation ceremony takes place on 17 December, starting at 7.30pm and is due to end around 9pm, when graduates and other guests will enjoy a celebratory dinner in the Hilton Hotel.

The post-experience degree was introduced two years ago following a link-up between the University of Teesside in the UK and UiTM in Malaysia. The two-year course is taught mainly by distance learning using the University of Teesside's Blackboard electronic teaching system. Staff from Teesside fly our for a three day induction at the start of the programme and for two further study blocks held at UiTM.

Professor Fraser said he was delighted to join the celebrations by the Teesside University graduates in Malaysia and will be taking with him the best wishes of the whole University community. "The excellent partnership between the University of Teesside and Universiti Teknologi Mara is one that we are very proud of and I know that the staff of both institutions have worked very constructively to make a success of this distance-learning degree for practicing health professionals in Malaysia," he said.

School of Health and Social Care Director, Mr Paul Keane said: "The ceremony will be a real landmark in our blossoming partnership with health education partners in Malaysia and we are particularly delighted that the success rate on the distance learning course is comparable to courses directly delivered at the University of Teesside in Middlesbrough."

A new Memorandum of Agreement was signed between the two universities earlier this year, which endorses the successful partnership between both institutions, and the University of Teesside's new Medical Imaging programme has just enrolled its first students at UiTM. Again the course will be taught largely by distance learning using the University of Teesside's Blackboard electronic teaching system.

Mr Keane said: "Until recently many Malaysian students came to the UK to undertake and complete their degree programmes. It now makes a lot more sense to utilise new technology to deliver courses directly to the students in their home country and keep in contact with them through electronic means. We are very pleased by this development, which came about after our School of Health and Social Care at Teesside received two 'excellent' quality teaching ratings for its courses from the UK Higher Education Quality Assurance Agency.

Professor Derek Fraser will be hosting a reception from former students of the University of Teesside based in Malaysia the day after the graduation ceremony. This will be held in the same Hilton Hotel, No 2 Jalan Barat, Petaling Jaya, 46200, and begins at 4pm on 18 December 2002. It has been organised by the University's Alumni Association and further information is available by e-mailing s.buckley@tees.ac.uk or by phoning Mark White on mobile number +44 7710 636355.

To contact the University of Teesside's Press Office in the UK please ring +44 1642 342015 in England or e-mail pr@tees.ac.uk

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