The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) is committed to promoting surgical collaborations between the UK and Malaysia. The Malaysia-United Kingdom Travelling Fellowship (MUTF) is a strategic tripartite collaboration programme between the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd), Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) and Universiti Malaya (UM).
This pilot programme aims to provide observership opportunities for Malaysian surgical trainees to be hosted at centres of surgical excellence in the UK.
The main objectives of the fellowship are to support improvements in healthcare systems by spreading good surgical practices and helping RCSEd members and affiliates to learn new skills, foster positive relationships, and encourage long-term affiliations. Exposure to different learning environments will allow them to achieve surgical training aims in different healthcare systems which they otherwise would not have been able to. MUTF will provide the platform where collaborations can be developed in surgical training, quality improvement and research.
On the rolling out of the first Malaysia-United Kingdom Travelling Fellowship, RCSEd President of the College, Professor Rowan Parks said:
“We are greatly honoured to work with our Malaysian colleagues so that Malaysian surgical trainees can benefit from observing and experiencing basic to highly specialised technical and practical skills in UK centres of excellence, with an aim to foster long-term relationships with these university partners.”
Mr Siong-Seng Liau, the Honorary Treasurer has been instrumental in setting up this program and emphasised the importance of the collaboration among all stakeholders stating:
“We hope that this fellowship programme will also enable the Malaysian and UK trainees to learn from each other and serve as a platform for the exchange of ideas and sharing of surgical experience which will benefit respective healthcare systems. Such trainee experiences will no doubt translate to life-long professional relationships between future leaders of Surgery in respective countries.”
Prof. Dato’ Dr Hanafiah Bin Harunarashid, Pro Vice-Chancellor of Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) – Kuala Lumpur Campus, has been instrumental in advancing surgical specialisation of the healthcare profession in Malaysia. He commented:
“UKM has a long-standing link with RCSEd. We believe that this programme will provide a unique opportunity that should not be missed by trainees from both countries. Being a party to this project is recognition that UKM is a major surgical training centre in the country and for this, we are honoured to be collaborating with RCSEd.”
The deadline for applications is 20 April 2024.
Find out more about the RCSEd Malaysia-United Kingdom Travelling Fellowship here.