Georgian-Norwegian Master Program in Public Health at Tbilisi State University: Students’

Abstract

DIKU/SIU founded CPEA-2015/10057 Project Georgian-Norwegian Master program in Public Health (GeNoC-PH) was launched in 2016 in Georgia. Project coordinator from Norway was Arctic University of Norway and in Georgia - Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University. The project aimed: to create Master program in Public Health; to educate students on master and doctoral level to utilize the large amount of data generated from newly developed National Health Register in Georgia, to enhance knowledge transfer between Norway and Georgia in terms of register-based epidemiology and public health and to increase Public Health competence in Georgia. In 2018 the innovative Georgian-Norwegian Collaborative Master Program was designed in the framework of GeNoC-PH Project at the Faculty of Medicine, Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University (TSU). During the project following activities were carry out: long- and short-term mobility of the students, staff mobility, development of Joint courses, joint teaching and guest lecturing.

The information about the project achievement was disseminate trough different channels, social media, paper ,,Implementation of competence-based Georgian-Norwegian Master program in Public Health’’ was presented on EUPHA Conferences in 2017 and the paper ,,Continuous quality improvement through benchmarking and harmonization of second cycle education in public health’’ in 2021. Abstracts were published in European Journal of Public Health.

TSU Quality Assurance Service plans and conducts BA, MA and PhD students’ surveys in a systematic way. The several types of surveys have been introduced for master students, among them: every-semester student surveys, student satisfaction survey, and survey of students’ focus groups.

Master Program students were asked to evaluate each course, professors, and whole educational master Program. For 2018-2020 years average evaluation was 4,5 out of 5.  Students underline as a strength of the program: “mobility opportunities”, “attractive extra curricula activities”,            ‘’professionalism of teaching staff’’ ,,interesting courses content and lectures”. On a question- ”Would you recommend our program to your friend/colleague?” all student’s answer was “Strongly recommended”.

Based to the survey results, the Georgian-Norwegian Master program in Public Health the Tbilisi State University is very attractive for the students. As a long term impact, new master program will contribute to increase Public Health competence in Georgia, which is line of International project.