The University of Puthisastra (UP) is delighted to announce that we have once again broken new ground in the world of Higher Education, becoming the first and only university in the history of Cambodia to become listed within The Times Higher Education ‘Young University Rankings,’ effectively being recognized as the TOP UNIVERSITY in Cambodia.’

The inclusion of UP marks another huge milestone and major step forward, both for UP in particular, and for the international status of Higher Education in Cambodia. Our inclusion represents clear recognition of the high quality of our education delivery, and the ongoing improvements that UP is making to our already excellent teaching and learning, improved curricula, graduate outcomes, alongside over 100 research publications in 2021 spearheaded by our Cambodian and international academic team of teachers and researchers.

UP is one of Cambodia’s younger universities, having been founded in 2007 and is 15 years old this year. So our inclusion into this elite division of The Times rankings is a stunning and amazing achievement for an organization so young.

The Times Higher Education rankings are extremely prestigious as the only global performance tables that assess universities so deeply, against both a wide range of academic, business and professional data sets, as well as against the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

This deep assessment further shows the changes that UP is spearheading in Cambodian Higher Education. UP recognizes the need to lead the way in the 21st Century, to provide best opportunities (and highest salaries) for UP graduates and ensuring that Cambodian Higher Education can be measured, compared and match the offers of other elite, global universities.

Cambodia through UP, now joins the leading academic nations of the world, such as the UK, Singapore, the USA, Australia and Japan.
Each university in the rankings has a detailed profile, with a breakdown of its overall scores which they have been working hard to contribute to. The rankings are available here to analyse: https://www.timeshighereducation.com/world-university-rankings/2022/young-university-rankings.
Having successfully achieved recognition on the global stage as the number one university in Cambodia, UP will continue our progress upwards in the months and years ahead, to cement both UP’s and Cambodia’s place and reputation within the Higher Education industry globally.

With our excellent staff and students working in lock-step together, the sky’s the limit for this young and UP-coming university! There is no better time to study at UP. Be the best.

Scholarship Program at UP!

The University of Puthisastra is committed to ensuring access to its outstanding academic programs and services for a range of high achieving Cambodian students who would otherwise not be able to afford a quality education.

UP has a scholarships program based on financial need and merit through a highly selective application process. The University seeks students who need scholarships and who have excelled academically and have participated in extracurricular activities especially community service in Cambodia.

UP is creating Cambodia’s next generation of Leaders.

The objective of the scholarships program is to identify and develop student leaders who will prepare to become Cambodia’s next healthcare and information technology leaders. Thus, after selection, scholarship winners will become part of the scholarships program community of UP student leaders. They will be expected to continue their participation in leadership on and off campus and will have opportunities to participate in leadership training programs.

• SUBMISSION OF SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION

Interested applicants submit scholarship form via: https://www.puthisastra.edu.kh/scholarship-application-form/
Date: From now until 6th March 2022

• SELECTION

Successful candidates will be notified on 4th April 2022 For more information, please send us your message or call 023 221 624

Register Now to get a chance for special offer from UP

Register Now to get special offer from UP! Get a chance to get a gift package include:

• Free registration Fee
• UP First Aid kits
• UP Masks
• UP Notebook and pens!

5 winners will be drawn from the spinning wheel every Saturday. The result will be publishing on every Tuesday.

The earlier you register, the higher chance to get a gift package! Hurry up! Register now via the following link:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdRyOsXS9XapQKSsobd7ALIVD7hLKgezfl5YoP7ZcWytoX_Tg/viewform?fbclid=IwAR3GbWusHPxUQzo9gvRz22qpQutQln560fmgeubk7Zu8KzPsPvHI6Kw3kMY

Note: For Foundation Year Program 2021-2022 Registration only #UP #Earlybirds

DR PROM VIREAK, DEPUTY DEAN, FACULTY OF MEDICINE PROVIDES TRAINING ON MEDICAL EMERGENCIES IN THE DENTAL CLINIC 

Last week dental tutors, residents, staff and students in years 4, 5 and 6 underwent several hours of hybrid training on management of medical emergencies in the dental clinic.

Although medical emergencies are very rare, it is important that every dentist and dental student is prepared to handle such an emergency should it arise. The UP dental clinic is well equipped with the necessary drugs and equipment, including an AED (Automated External Defibrillator), pulse oximeter and oxygen equipment. Dr Vireak’s course covered diagnosis of collapse, Basic Life Support (eg CPR), and most of the emergencies which can occur eg stroke, epileptic seizure, asthmatic attack, choking, hypoglycemia, myocardial infarction, angina, fainting, hyperventilation and anaphylaxis.

Following his lecture, which contained many video clips, Dr Vireak demonstrated resuscitation techniques, recovery position, Heimlich maneuver, airway management and the use of the oxygen equipment for the participants. Some students were able to practice on the CPR mannequin. Further practical hands on sessions are being organized by the clinic managers Dr Horn Sereybot and Dr Bich Sothea in the near future.

Consultation Workshop for Health Workforce Development Plan 2022-2030

Dr. Prom Vireak, Deputy Dean for Clinical Affairs of the Faculty of Medicine, represented UP in the consultation workshop organized by the Ministry of Health in collaboration with the WHO and held at Sokha Phnom Penh Hotel on 3rd and 4th February 2022. The workshop aimed to collect ideas and feedback in order to improve and enhance the health workforce development plan for 2022 to 2030.

This is the fourth Development Plan since 1997. The first one (1997-2005) focused on developing health human resources in number and equal distribution. The second (2006-2015) and the third (2016-2021) plans intended to increase the capacity, skills and quality of the health workforce. The participants came from the main health sciences universities (UHS, UP and IU), all the health-related councils, and relevant departments from the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Planning. 6 action domains, along with specific strategies and various goals, were discussed:

• Advancing pre-service competency-based education, assessment and high quality preceptorship.
• Timely and responsive in-service training, post-qualification education and lifelong learning.
• Growing the health workforce capacity through job creation, recruitment, deployment and retention of high quality staff.
• Regulation and governance of the health workforce and associated sectors.
• Work/learning enabling environment for a fully participating workforce.
• Sufficiency reached through health workforce planning, research, innovation and influence of multi-sectorial plans.

The participants were divided into smaller groups to discuss and provide feedback on each of the strategic objectives and goals of the action domain. All the feedbacks will be taken into the consideration by the technical team who will finalize the work. UP is very proud to make strong contributions to the planning of Cambodia’s future. We look forward to the final plan from the MoH!

The QLTS Department Hosted an Interactive Curriculum Design Workshop for UP Staff

On 08th Feb 2022, the QLTS Department run a workshop on How to Design Interactive Curriculum for academic and teaching staff at the University of Puthisastra with the primary aim of advancing their skills in developing course outlines for their teaching subjects.

The workshop was begun with an introduction to the ABC Learning Design, which is a card-based approach to curriculum design, and why it is vital for curriculum design. The letter A stands for Arena, B stands for Blended, and C stands for Connected.

This workshop is important because it can improve all of the course outlines at UP and shows teachers how to use interactive elements in their course design which will help to improve the education at UP.
The QLTS team was really pleased to share our knowledge with UP staff during this workshop and we hoped that all the participants did enjoy the workshop and acquired new insights upon the completion of it.

Unmasking COVID-19: Protecting Health during a Global Crisis conference

Associate Professor Tineke Water and Ms Tun Sreypov contributed to an international nursing conference “Unmasking COVID 19: Protecting Health during a Global Crisis” Dec 2021 attended by a global audience of more than 45 countries.
The conference was hosted by Mae Fah Luang University, Thailand. Dr Tineke and Ms Sreypov were actively involved in the conference planning and facilitating workshops/panels.
Dr Tineke also was an invited keynote speaker on “Maternal and child health: Nurses’ actions towards sustainable development goals”. This was a very successful event with nurses globally joining together to share their experiences and knowledge of how nurses contribute so much to health care environments. There were deep connections made and great partnerships for working together in the future.

UP Dental Students Exposed to Issues Around Smoking

Approximately 2.4 million Cambodians, or 22 percent of people aged 15 and older, use some form of tobacco and are at a substantially increased risk of diseases, early deaths and impoverishment. Each year, tobacco causes 15,000 deaths, a third of which are among the poorest in Cambodia (WHO 2021).

Over the past 3 weeks, year 3 dental students have had two special lectures about tobacco and smoking from Dr. MOM Kong from the Cambodian Movement for Health (CMH). This NGO has taken a leading role in Cambodia in recent years focusing on the dangers of smoking, and promoting various measures to reduce its popularity.

The two lectures from Dr Mom Kong covered the relationship between smoking, general health and oral health, the influence of the tobacco companies (both international and Cambodian), and how health professionals (including dentists) can play an important role in promoting smoking avoidance and smoking cessation.

Dr Mom Kong and UP hope that in the future CMH and UP can work together on tobacco and other public health issues, including in the areas of research and health promotion. Thanks to Dr. Mom Kong for highlighting these important issues for UP dental students, and showing the students that health professionals can play their part in educating and advising patients about the risks of smoking and the various strategies for smoking cessation.

Year-5 MD Students Provided General Health Checkup to Children in a Kep Province Village

Four year-5 MD students joined a community project in Kep Province. The Quality, Learning & Teaching, and Students Department arranged this project, which focused on the general health checkup of children aged 6 to 13 years.

The volunteers were trained on the head-to-toe examination of children before the trip. They also learnt to plot and interpret a growth chart and to complete medical notes. Among 37 disadvantaged children from the Kep Gardens Association School, our volunteers found some with tonsillar hypertrophy grade 1 to 2, allergic rhinitis, or overweight. The children have been referred to see medical doctors for further investigation and management.

The volunteers had also a chance to provide general education for a healthy lifestyle to the children and provided them with one tablet of deworming medication and with multivitamins.

Mr. Bunheng Rothnakseth says: “This was a valuable experience and also an opportunity for me to learn and improve my medical skills! I look forward to joining the next community project at a different location!”.

Dental Students Trained in Biostatics and Data Analysis

This semester UP year 5 dental students have been studying biostatistics and practical data analysis using SPSS. The class was taught by Dr. Horn Rithvitou. The class focused on teaching students about basic biostatistics and data management, including different types of data, hypothesis testing, appropriate statistical tests for different situations, and how to manage, manipulate, analyze and present data using SPSS..

Next semester these year 5 students will be choosing their thesis topics, and having this training in biostatistics will be very helpful, as having a basic understanding of biostatistics and SPPS will enable them to analyze their own results.

Buddhism and Public Health Webinar

In partnership with the Center for SouthEast Asian Studies, UP hosted a webinar on Buddhism and Medicine. The webinar explored the recent excavation and restoration programme by the APSARA National Authority in Siem Reap of a medieval hospital that highlighted the extraordinary early health innovation at the service of the Khmer people.

Other speakers included scholars who study ancient medicine in China, Vietnam, Tibet, and India and who addressed the long background of humanity’s development of medicines and the distribution systems that spread the time-honoured cures and the new scientific discoveries throughout the world.

The webinar was a huge success with archaeology meeting medical anthropology and public health. The team from the Center for SouthEast Asia Studies hope to visit Cambodia in July, with a conference being planned.

UP Year 6 Dental Students Begin Data Collection for Theses

57 year 6 dental students in 14 groups are mostly ready to start their data collection for their theses, which must be completed during 2023. Last year, while in year 5, students selected a wide range of interesting topics and developed their proposals for submission for the UP Research Committee.

Over the next few weeks and months students will be collecting their data, following their carefully developed research methods. Unlike previous years, it is our intention that every research group will complete their thesis group before they take the National Exit Exams. Here is the list of students, thesis topics and supervisors:

FACEBOOK DIGITAL MARKETING

UP has just organized the important training course for our students about FACEBOOK DIGITAL MARKETING which was trained by Ms. Hok Sreymom, a member of Pack Cambodia on February 12-13, 2022 in order to manifest the significant concepts of the running online business, categorizing eye-catching products and using creative tools of FACEBOOK.

The students could obtain satisfied feeling about the core parts of the training such business objectives, target audience, unique selling point, content strategy, best practices, and analytics after attending the course both days.

Dental students’ shoot the “10 reasons to study dentistry at UP”

In the past 2 weeks many dental students have volunteered to help make video clips of the “10 reasons to study dentistry at UP”. The students all feel that they made the “right decision” to study at UP, and are not shy to say why. Already the first few video clips have been a hit on Facebook – and have been shared thousands of times.

We hope they can reach some of the year 12 students who are currently considering which university they will put down as their first choice, in the expectation that they will pass the upcoming Ministry of Health National Entry Exam (NEE).

At UP dental students believe they will succeed in their studies to become well qualified and professional dentists. They know that the competition between dental clinics is intense, and that those with the best knowledge and skills will be the most successful.

Some are already thinking about the possibility of postgraduate specialist training, and UP hopes to offer such courses in the future. Do look out for these videos, and do share them with others.

Some are already thinking about the possibility of postgraduate specialist training, and UP hopes to offer such courses in the future. Do look out for these videos, and do share them with others.

Recently the UP Dental Hospital received a new X-ray Scanner Machine (brand MyRay from ITALY) from Unident Company.

This high quality X-ray Scanner will improve the ability of students and dentists to take accurate clinical records and make accurate diagnoses. UP is continually updating its equipment so that we can continue to provide a high quality service for our customers.

Diploma of Endodontics students providing high quality treatment in UP Dental Hospital

Postgraduate students in the new endodontic diploma program have started to treat patients, following several months of intensive theory training and practice on extracted teeth. UP has been getting referrals for the students from both our own clinic and from outside.

The students come to UP one day per week and are closely supervised by our 4 specialists in endodontics. The treatment is provided at very reasonable prices and must reach a high standard of excellence. The pictures below show two cases successfully treated by Dr. Lim Ratanak and Dr. Hy Hongthien.