The University of Puthisastra (UP) has been ranked 28th TOP private university in ASEAN by AppliedHE Private University Ranking ASEAN. This is another incredible achievement and is in addition to UP being only Cambodian University in the very prestigious Times Higher Education World University Ranking.

These incredible results only happens from enormous effort.

UP has done a huge job of improving the quality of teaching and learning; improving the curriculum to include essential modern skills for education 4.0 such as ICT, soft skills (critical thinking, problem-solving, and creative skills), research, and English. With high-quality staff, 71% have doctoral degrees, 81% have master’s degrees, and professional development across all majors for the whole year, positively impacting students’ learning outcomes.

The results speak for themselves – UP students achieved 100% across the board in Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing, and Pharmacy, to name a few. The very best in Cambodia.

UP also achieved great scientific research results by publishing 198 publications nationally and internationally in 2022. Another incredible result for Cambodia.

UP has a clear vision and mission to improve education to become recognized both Nationally and Internationally. Our efforts will positively impact the young generation for their career and country.

There is no better time to be a UPer.

UP Health Center Launches Soft Opening and Blessing Ceremony

On the 20th February 2023, UP launched the soft opening and blessing ceremony for its brand new Health Center to mark the first start of the year 2023.The UP Health Center promotes social wellbeing by fostering a culture of preventive and predictive healthcare; it is a caring institution that offers accessible, comprehensive, and high-quality healthcare. UP cultivates education and research that aims to produce impactful results in addressing national and global health care challenges.

UP’s Health Center is located in the heart of Phnom Penh city.</p
Pharmacy

On the ground floor UP has the largest Pharmacy store in Cambodia providing quality pharmacy services such as reviewing prescriptions from doctors to ensure accuracy and suitability for the patient, including the dosage, time of administration, correctly and safely labelled, providing supervised administration of medicines, advising the public on medicines, side-effects of medicines and the treatment of minor ailments, providing advice on specialist health care issues, such as blood pressure, smoking cessation, cholesterol monitoring and diabetes screening, supporting the patients to make healthier choices, such as intake of more nutritious food, exercising more often or stopping smoking.

Dental hospital – 2

A Dental Hospital on the first and second floors. UP Dental Hospital is a national leader in providing the best oral health care to the people of Cambodia. With state of the art dental equipment, the Hospital provides a range of dental treatments from basic to advanced, including orthodontics, implants, crown and bridge, dentures, root canal treatment and surgery. UP Dental Hospital is also involved in educating Cambodia’s top dentists. With a strong emphasis on evidence-based high quality clinical practice, our dentists and dental students strive to provide quality, affordable and comprehensive care for all ages.

Installation of the 22 dental chairs has begun and should be completed in the next few days. New instruments and materials have been ordered and additional members of staff have been appointed with some having started their training in the last few days.

The Dean of Dentistry, Professor Callum said: “With our new dental hospital, students will have more opportunity to treat patients. This will result in a higher quality of our graduates. In addition, we will have the clinical space to hold more postgraduate and CPD hands-on courses. We look forward to welcoming new patients who are seeking high quality dental care at a reasonable cost”.

Medical Clinic

A medical clinic on the second floor, will provide wide ranging and comprehensive general health services including preventive health and chronic disease management. We promote excellence in health by providing comprehensive and complete health care for the patients in our community. Health services include health screening, diagnosis and treatment of a wide range of disorders from very experienced, skilled and fully qualified doctors.

Our services will include family medicine, womens health, mens health, pediatrics, travel medicine, vaccines and immunisations and skincare.

Health education about preventative healthcare will be a major focus!

Noted that the Grand Opening of UP Health Center will take place on the 31st March of 2023!

UP Welcomes Its New Students

The University of Puthisastra (UP), the Department of Foundation Year (FY), has arranged two induction programs to welcome new students: (1) the Big Launch and (2) the Orientation Week. The purpose of these programs is to bring our new students on board and make them experience a good transition into university lives.

The Big Launch is scheduled on 13th of March 2023, from 7:00am until 16:00pm. The agenda includes:

1. Greetings from the President
2. Greetings from the Chairman of UP Board Trustees
3. Introduction to the Department of Foundation Year
4. Introduction to UP’s Faculties and HoDs/Deans
5. Lbokator performance
6. Fashion show of UP’s uniforms
7. Campus tour
8. Student support workshops
9. Lucky draw

Following the Big Launch is Orientation Week. The Orientation Week is scheduled from 14th March through 16th March 2023, with a support day falling on 17 March 2023. There are a variety of activities:

1. Treasure Hunt & Selfie Games
2. Information on IT services
3. Introduction to UPOP and Student Services
4. Overview of Foundation Year program & English
5. Review of important policies at UP, especially attendance, assessments, and academic integrity
6. English Placement Test
7. Fun games & team-building activities!

The support day is aimed at helping students with any issues in schedules or registration, including providing a mini-orientation to students who registered late.

We are delighted to welcome our new students to the University of Puthisastra and their first year of studies. Don’t miss out on your chance to connect with your faculty, have fun, and make new friends while preparing for the new academic year!

INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE STUDENT KE RATHKANHA WRITES ABOUT HER VISIT TO CHULALONGKORN UNIVERSITY IN THAILAND

My name Kea Rathkanha. I am a dental student in year 6 at University of Puthisastra. Recently, I was selected to participate in an exchange program to Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand under their Academic Visit & Exchange Program (AVEP). This is an exchange program for undergraduate dental students across SEA and beyond.

This program aims to build connections between dental students worldwide by providing enriching activities such as clinical observation, as well as academic and cultural activities. During the week there were 32 dental students in attendance from 7 different countries – Hong Kong, South Korea, Philippines, Vietnam, UK, Indonesia, and Cambodia (with only me).

The program provided a great opportunity to gain valuable knowledge and experience, and exposed me to many exciting developments in dentistry which have not yet reached Cambodia. The program included several lectures about new innovations in dentistry, how digital dentistry can be used in implant treatment, and about the world of personalized medicine. The lectures were given by top professors from Chulalongkorn University.

I was very happy to have had the opportunity to get this international experience and spend some time abroad as part of my studies. During the week I made many new friends among the Thai staff and students, as well as with the other international students, and was able to share some things about our dental school here in Cambodia. I would encourage all dental students to apply for an exchange program as it is a chance to learn new things and improve yourself.

UP Dental Faculty Invited To Participate In 5 Day Research Workshop at KKU

Faculty of Dentistry staff Dr. Horn Rithvitou and Dr. Lao Ryna recently attended a 5 day research workshop entitled “The 8th International Workshop on Clinical Research Methods in Oral Health” at Khon Kaen University (KKU) in Thailand.

The course focused on many aspects of clinical research such as study design, sample size calculation, ethics, measurement, statistical analysis, scientific writing etc. Participants came from many parts of Southeast Asia and beyond to participate. The course was conducted through a collaboration involving KKU, Thammasat University and University of Washington, with support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the USA.

Toward the end of the workshop participants from the different countries grouped together to formulate a clinical trial proposal and present it to all the participants. Dr. Vitou and Dr. Ryna reported that they have learned a lot from the workshop and will be using this knowledge to help students with their theses. They would like to participate in future research in Cambodia if the opportunity arises. Thanks to UP for its support in sending our staff to the workshop.

Charity Walk to Branch Center

On Sunday, 5th March, Dave Spencer (English Teacher), Jean Le Goff (Dental technician) and his wife Stephanie, will walk from the gates of UP to the orphanage. Every step we take will be for these unfortunate children. I would like to ask you all for any financial help you can provide. If everyone reading this would contribute the price of a cup of coffee, or a bowl of noodles, it would make a tremendous difference to the lives of these kids.

To donate, please contribute to the following ABA bank account:
• Account number: 002 954 878
• Account name: FINDLAY IAN AND YAM PRASITH AND REM SREYLEAK
100% of donation will go to មណ្ឌលមែកឈើ (Branch Center).
Thank you for being part of our community. Without you, none of it is possible

Faculty of ICT launches the new semesters for BSIT & MSIT Programmes!

Students in the Bachelors and Masters programmes in ICT are only a few short weeks away from returning to campus for the next semester/term in Academic Year 2022-2023!

For new and returning students joining for Year 1, we will have orientation starting 13 March, then 3 intensive weeks for Academic Skill Development, Computer Applications, and First Aid from 20 March to 7 April. After the intensive weeks, Semester 1 will start after Khmer New Year!

We are excited to announce that the BSIT Year 3 will be continuing in March 2023 with both majors of Programming and Networking. This specialization will determine the courses students take in years 3 and 4, to help get them ready for their career after graduation!

And let’s not forget the Masters programme – both Year 1 and Year 2 will also be starting Term 2 in March! We’re excited to welcome back the BSIT Y3 and MSIT students at the ICT orientation on 4 March.

UP DENTAL STUDENTS LEARN DENTAL PHOTOGRAPHY

Recently Dr Peter Sheridan, an Australian dentist who is a world expert in dental photography, conducted a course for UP dental students. The course started with a 2-hour lecture, followed by 2 hour practical hands-on sessions in the clinic for groups of year 6 students, as well as our 4 postgraduate endodontics students. Dr Sheridan was assisted by several UP tutors. The students now feel confident they can take good quality dental photos of their patients, which is a very good skill to have.

In addition, Adjunct Clinical Professor Steve Cohn, the Australian coordinator of our postgraduate endodontic course, provided the year 6 students with some hands-on training on radiographic techniques during endodontics. We are grateful to Dr Sheridan and Prof Cohn and the other tutors and post-graduate students who made this workshop such a big success.

UP pharmacy students won the best oral and poster presentation award in the 14th Annual Northeast Pharmacy Research Conference 2023, Thailand

Congratulations to two UP pharmacy students who got the Best Poster and Oral Presentation:
#Best Poster Presentation
1. “Knowledge of, Attitude towards and Counseling Practice of Vitamin Supplements among Cambodian Pharmacists” By Ms. Yean Chanboramey et al.
2. #Best_Oral_Presentation – “Knowledge of, Attitude toward and Practice on Over-Counter Drugs Among Health Science Students in Cambodia: A Pilot Study” By: Ms. Ma Sreyleak et al.

These achievements were presented at the 14th Annual Northeast Pharmacy Research Conference 2023 at Mahasarakham University, Thailand. They also won the outstanding Exhibition Award.
This is the tremendous success of the UP pharmacy students and UP staff.

UP Dental Students Visit Preah Ang Duong Hospital to Learn About General Anesthesia

As part of their course in general anesthesia, year 6 dental students have recently visited Preah Ang Duong Hospital in small groups to spend time observing general anesthetics being administered to patients. The students found the experience helped them to understand what they had learned in their lectures from Prof So Saphy. Thanks to the staff at Preah Ang Duong Hospital for making these visits possible.

VISIT BY MR GUNTUR UTAMA FROM IVOCLAR VIVADENT

Last week UP had a visit from Mr Guntur Utama, Head of Business Development Southeast Asia for the Ivoclar Vivadent company. Mr Guntur had brought with him dental supplies needed for the Healthy Kids Cambodia project, which UP is actively involved in. The photo shows Mr Guntur with Dr Sieng Chanthyda (Co-Director of CIPO) and the donated products. UP is very happy to have an MOU with Ivoclar Vivadent, and for their support in this very worthwhile project to help improve the oral health of Cambodian children. We also held discussions with Mr Guntur on the possible development of a dental technician training course, as Ivoclar Vivadent has huge experience and expertise in this area.

Faculty of Pharmacy staff and students of the University of Puthisastra visit Khon Kaen University, Thailand.

A delegation from the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Puthisastra, led by Mr. Sor Darayuth, Rotation Officer, accompanied by Pharmacy faculty staff and pharmacy students, visited Khon Kaen University, Thailand, with a warm welcome from Professor NARIN. CHANSRI, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, along with senior staff, and professors of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Khon Kaen.

The visit was organized to discuss cooperation in providing internship opportunities for students, joint research and scholarships to students who have graduated from the University of Puthisastra to develop human resources for the health sector in Cambodia.

UP recruits volunteer dentists to help at prison

For many years UP dental students have participated in the weekly prison dental service, in partnership with the NGO One-2-One Cambodia and the Department of Prisons. The students visit 3 prisons near Phnom Penh for a day each week. Most recently the students have been providing services at Correction Center 2, supervised by Dr Lim Heng, our Community Dentistry Fieldwork Coordinator. The project provides much needed basic dental services to hundreds of prisoners each month, with the main treatment being relief of dental pain. The Prison Dental Service also provides valuable clinical experience for students, who learn how to work in a team.

Recently Dr Lim Heng was able to recruit 3 of our recent graduates from UP to be volunteers helping supervise the students. These are Dr Seng Sokhom, Dr Ouch Dara and Dr Naset Arafat

We are very grateful for their help with this important project. If any other UP dental graduates or final year students would like to help at the prison, please contact Dr Lim Heng.

Faculty of Medicine: Pre-Internship Training

The Faculty of Medicine provided pre-Internship training on 27th February 2023 to MD year 7 students.

It consisted of presentations and simulation practice; the presentation included the A-B-C-D-E approach to the assessment of seriously ill patients and the advanced cardiac arrest management. The students then went through 3 practice stations: simulation station 1 for seriously ill patients, 2 for reading blood gas analysis, and 3 for advanced cardiac arrest management. Each student had the opportunity to practice the skills under the guidance of specialized instructors from various private and public hospitals.

The Faculty of Medicine Simulation Club Provided First Aid Training to Borey Cheary

On 16th January 2023 the Deputy Dean for Clinical Affairs of the Faculty of Medicine led a group of seven students from the Medical Simulation Club to provide First Aid Training at Borey Cheary’s main office.

The presentation included bone fractures, burns, electric shock, open wounds, and puncture wound. 26 staff participated in the training sessions with demonstrations and practice on manikins. The training was part of an agreement with the Company that sponsored a study trip of medical students to a remote area in Siem Reap Province.The Faculty of Medicine expresses gratitude to Borey Cheary for supporting the medical students’ community initiatives

COMPETENCY IN ORAL MEDICINE FOR YEAR 6 DDS STUDENTS: TRAINING AND CALIBRATION FOR EARLY DETECTION OF ORAL CANCER (OralDETECT)

On 16th January 2023 the Deputy Dean for Clinical Affairs of the Faculty of Medicine led a group of seven students from the Medical Simulation Club to provide First Aid Training at Borey Cheary’s main office.

The presentation included bone fractures, burns, electric shock, open wounds, and puncture wound. 26 staff participated in the training sessions with demonstrations and practice on manikins. The training was part of an agreement with the Company that sponsored a study trip of medical students to a remote area in Siem Reap Province.The Faculty of Medicine expresses gratitude to Borey Cheary for supporting the medical students’ community initiatives

This was a one-day program starting at 8:30 am and finishing at 6.00 pm. First, the students did a “pre-calibration assessment” to find their baseline knowledge on various lesions of the mouth. In this assessment they were shown photographs of 20 cases. The students were allowed to ask 2 questions to help them arrive at the answers. They filled up a Google form with their answers. The format was multiple choice questions with one correct/ one best answers. In the pre-calibration assessment scores were generally low.

This was followed by a series of lectures given by our two lecturers who are Oral Pathology and Oral Medicine specialists from University of Malaya, Dr Anand Ramanathan and A/Prof Thomas George Kallarakal. Following the lectures, the students took the 1st calibration assessment which was another set of photographs of 20 cases, filling up their answers in a Google form. After this there was a discussion on the 1st calibration assessment giving them the corrective feedback for each case. In this feedback session the students were given the reasons for the correct and incorrect answers for each case. This was followed by the 2nd calibration assessment with another set of 20 cases and a discussion on the 2nd calibration assessment giving them corrective feedback. Finally, they took the 3rd and last calibration assessment. A score of 75% or above was set as the “pass” in this competency.

The year 6 DDS students of University of Puthisastra (UP) obtained an average score of 38.66 with a median of 40 in their pre-calibration assessment but improved their average scores to 75.18 and median to 75 in their final calibration assessment. Our thanks to Dr. Anand Ramanathan and A/Prof. Dr. Thomas George Kallarakal who are the adjunct faculty members in University of Puthisastra. The complete course was conducted online. It is hoped to roll this course out to other dental students and dentists in Cambodia in the future.

Figure 1: The pre-calibration assessment scores of the year 6 BDS students.
Figure 2: The final calibration scores of the year 6 BDS students.

The Clerkship of 2nd 3rd Year of Medical Laboratory Technology Students Comes to an End

The second and third-year students of Medical Laboratory Technology, the Laboratory Science Department, University of Puthisastra began their one-month clerkship on January 30, 2023.

On February 24, 2023, students completed their full-time clerkship in the Medical Laboratory of the private and public hospital located in Phnom Penh as mentioned below:
•Second Year students of Medical of Laboratory Technology start their clerkship at Cho Ray Phnom Penh Hospital, Preah Ang Duong Hospital, and Preah Ketomealea Hospital.
• Third Year students of Medical Laboratory Technology start their clerkship at National Pediatric Hospital and Khmer-Soviet Friendship Hospital.

During their clerkship, students carefully learned and focused on essential topics such as hematology, biochemistry, immuno-serology, microbiology, parasitology, endocrinology, mycology, and PCR molecular diagnostics in the medical laboratory units of each hospital.

The Faculty of Health Sciences and Biotechnology would like to thank the instructors of each medical laboratory for teaching and sharing knowledge with our students and thank all hospitals for allowing the clerkship for our students.

Denriche Dentists from Japan return to UP

Late last year UP renewed its MOU with the Denriche Asia Company from Japan. The agreement includes regular visits by Japanese dentists to teach students, support for poor patients (especially children) to get free dental treatment in the UP Dental Hospital, and scholarships for 2 or 3 dental students each year to visit Japan for a week.

Last week a group of 6 dentists from Denriche visited our faculty for the first time since Covid. They were Dr Akira Suzuki, Dr Shin Kawamoto, Dr Kazuya Kitazawa, Dr Hidenori Mochizuki, Dr Yuki Arai and Dr Yo Kusakawa. They spent some time supervising our dental students in the clinic, and also provided an afternoon of lectures on preventive dentistry, and the use of intra-oral scanners in dentistry.

Ms Ai and her team also interviewed 11 students who were short-listed for the Denriche scholarship to Japan later this year. Dr Mochizuki also donated an implant surgical motor for the dental hospital. The Denriche project has now been running for more than 6 years, and has been a great success.

We would like to thank the Managing Director, Ms Ai Yamazaki, for her continuing support, and we look forward to future visits.

30 UP pharmacy students do internship at Ucare pharmacy

Ucare pharmacy Established in 2004. It is the first and biggest chain of pharmacy and beauty stores in Cambodia. Based on the collaboration between UP and Ucare, faculty of pharmacy send 30 pharmacy students to do internship in 22 branches of Ucare in Cambodia. UCare Pharmacy warmly welcomes UP students. Students will gain knowledge of pharmacists with many years of experience over the next few months and they will also have the opportunity to learn about the international standard procedures of the pharmacy practice at Ucare.

We wish all pharmacy students a success in this internship.

English Year 2 Summative Assessment 2 – Group presentation

For their summative assessment 2 students were teamed up in a group of three to present their 3 Course Menu, which includes a menu of a country outside of Southeast Asia, an original infographic for their desired menu, and how they will market and advertise their business. With this assessment, students were able to come up with innovative ideas, collaborate and share different perspectives with peers, and produce oral communication effectively, which led to a successful presentation.

UP DENTAL STUDENTS CONTINUE THEIR GOOD WORK IN THE HEALTHY KIDS CAMBODIA PROJECT

Healthy Kids Cambodia is a project set up to help improve the health and oral health of school children all over Cambodia.

UP has been working with our NGO partner One-2-One Cambodia on this project for many years, and is now playing a major role in expanding the project through CIPO. The MOH Oral Health Bureau and the School Health Department at the MOEYS are key partners.

This semester our dental students in years 4 and 5 have made weekly visits to schools to implement the key activities of the project. These include oral health education, a daily tooth brushing program, application of silver diamine fluoride (to arrest and prevent dental caries), fissure sealants, and simple fillings. We visited schools supported by Cambodia Children’s Fund in Steung Menchay district to provide basic prevention and dental care for about 400 children supervised by UP Community Fieldwork Coordinator Dr. Hour Lim Heng. Another group of students went to Chak Tamok Primary School which has about 1700 children, supervised by Dr. Heng RIthi. This week our students have joined with Cambodia Oral Health Partnership from Australia led by Dr. Steve Cohn to provide treatment at Hang Ngor Sras Chork Primary School. UP is very happy to support this project, which in the future might become nation-wide.

Pharma Career Club week 1: Clinical Pharmacy – Roles of a clinical pharmacist in Cambodia

We are excited to announce that UP Pharma Career Club is back! UP Pharma Career Club is run by the Faculty of Pharmacy to help pharmacy students determine their career pathways. Students have opportunities to meet inspiring pharmacy professionals who work in different fields of pharmacy every week. In the very first week of UP Pharma Career Club 2022-2023, we invited Miss. YEM Samneang, an alumna of University of Puthisastra (UP), as our guest speaker.

Miss. YEM Samneang received her bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy from UP. She is currently working as a clinical pharmacist at Sunrise Japan Hospital Phnom Penh.

Her talk during the previous session helped students gain more insights into the roles and the responsibilities of a clinical pharmacist and hospital pharmacy workflow. We believe that the information she provided will help prepare students for their future careers, particularly for those wishing to work as clinical pharmacists in standard hospitals.

Monument Books has partnered with the University of Puthisastra

Are you a bookworm in search of new and fascinating titles to read?

That’s wonderful news! The University of Puthisastra has just signed an agreement with Monument Books with the joint goal of promoting the reading habit for the UP community.

Monument Books in Cambodia is renowned for its books in English but also offers a selection of books in a variety of other languages. It carries a wide selection of books, including an up-to-date range of popular fiction and non-fiction, children’s books, and books on the history of Cambodia and Southeast Asia. Travel, Cookery, Health, Parenting, Self-help, Religion, Art, Design, and general reference books, including dictionaries and atlases.

From now on, all Monument Books purchases made by UP students, staff, and alumni will receive a 10% discount. It’s as simple as walking in and presenting your ID card.

Let’s get reading and have a positive impact on those around us. “A book is a gift you can open again and again.” – Garrison Keillor

Monument Books: #111, Norodom Blvd, Sangkat Chaktomuk, Phnom Penh 12207, Cambodia