Board of examiners meeting for MPH (Specialty) final examination was held today. The final examination for the MPH (Specialty) candidates was held from the 31st March 2009 until 07 April 2009. The external examiners for this year’s examination were Professor Malcolm Sim from Monash University (Melbourne), Professor Colin Binns from Curtin University (Perth) and Professor Iain Blair from United Arab Emirates University (UAE). A total of 9 candidates sat for their defence of the research report. The candidates for this year’s exam were:

Dr. Nik Nairan bt Abdullah (Family Health)
Dr. Sunita bt Abdul rahman (Family Health)
Dr. Ariza bt Zainuddin (Family Health)
Dr. Maslinor bt Ismail (Family Health)
Dr. Siti Rohana bt Saad (Family Health)
Dr. Anselm Su Ting (Occupational Health)
Dr. Rafidah bt Abdul Latif (Health Service Management)
Dr. Rohana bt Johan (Health Service Management)
Dr. Shahril Azian b Masrom (Health Service Management)

Apart from attending to the students’ defense of their research report, the external examiners were also involved in a few other activities;

Briefing to the external examiners – a briefing to the external examiners was held at the department meeting room on the 31 March 2009. The briefing was given by the HOD, Professor Dr. Awang Bulgiba and was also attended by the academic staff of the department.

Faculty talk – Professor Colin Binns gave a talk to the Faculty of Medicine during the Wednesday morning Clinical talk session. He gave a talk on “ 26 Shock – why Okinawa prefecture has fallen from no 1 to 26 for longevity in Japan“. He highlighted the decline in life expectancy of the population of Okinawa, Japan and discussed possible reasons for the change.

Department lunch- The external examiners were treated to a lunch by the Department at Restaurant Brisik in Petaling Jayaon the 6 April 2009. The lunch was attended by all academic staff from the department. During the lunch, Prof. Dr. Awang Bulgiba had also presented the external examiners with books about interesting places in Malaysia, as a token of appreciation for their contribution in the exams.

Board of examiners meeting – was held on the 7 April 2009, and later was followed by a photo session with the students and academic staff f the department. The photo session was also joined by Prof Dr Patrick Tan, Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Medicine.