Friendship and cooperation at forefront of Timor-Leste university visit

The highlight of a recent visit to Otago by senior leaders from the national university of Timor-Leste, Universidade Nacional Timor Lorosa’e (UNTL), was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two institutions, to promote friendship and continue to explore and encourage co-operation.

Rector of UNTL, and Otago alumnus, Professor Dr João Martins, and Vice-Rector of Students Affairs, Dr Ligia Tomas Correia, spent two days at Otago meeting with academics, touring the campus and spending time at the Pathway and English Language Centre and with International Student Support staff.

Dr Martins, who after studying medicine in Indonesia graduated with a Master of Public Health from Otago in 2002, also gave a presentation on “Human resources for health in Timor-Leste: Challenges and future projection”.

Otago and UNTL have a long history of collaboration and first signed an MOU in 2018. The recent visit was an opportunity to recommit to the relationship and actively foster opportunities in any discipline and area of research covered by both institutions.

“The University of Otago was delighted to host Dr Martins back on campus and to welcome Dr Correia and reaffirm the special friendship between our institutions,” says Vice-Chancellor Grant Robertson.

“We look forward to exploring the opportunities available through collaboration, including working together on research, and through the exchange of staff, students, resources and ideas, to the benefit of both institutions and the wider community.”

The research connections between the two universities go back to 2017, when The Centre for International Health at Otago engaged with Dr Martins and other colleagues at UNTL, with visits to Timor-Leste by Professor Philip Hill, Professor Richard Edwards, and Dr Sue McAllister.

A small grant from the Otago Global Health Institute (OGHI) enabled a research project to be completed between researchers at OGHI and UNTL, investigating smoking in high school students. Results from this were published in a peer-review journal last year.

Dr Martins was the principal investigator on the project and says he would like to continue with the research, as despite greater awareness of the risks and public health interventions, smoking rates among young people in Timor-Leste continue to grow.

“Last time we did a quantitative study, but I think it would also be good to do some qualitative study, to study why these young people are finding it difficult to quit smoking, and easy to become a new smoker.”

He says there are also opportunities to expand research on malaria and other viral diseases, such as Covid-19 or hepatitis, as well as non-communicable diseases, and HIV.

Dr Martins says the universities could also work together in areas of library support, English language training and student exchanges.

“Both universities can gain a lot with joint collaboration on research programmes. There is the capacity-building from our part – our students, our researchers – but also there is benefit to our Otago counterpart as they can learn new realities. And the study and experience can also be shared by other international audiences.”

Dr McAllister says Otago is keen to continue this collaboration  regarding smoking and other public health issues as identified by the UNTL team.

“Our collaboration to date has been really positive and the visit from Dr Martins and Dr Correia last week has strengthened this collaboration and provided ideas and opportunities for ongoing research that are important to Timor-Leste.”