In October, Southampton’s Occupational Therapy team hosted a week of activities in a special collaboration with Lund University Sweden and National University of Ireland Galway.
The event, ‘Making Internationalisation a Reality for All Occupational Therapy Students’ (MIROTS), saw occupational therapy undergraduates, from all three institutions, taking part in a full schedule covering important themes including co-production and role emerging placements in occupational therapy.
Southampton and Lund University have been collaborating to identify a common strategy that extends traditional Erasmus exchange arrangements and improves internationalisation of the curriculum.
In 2017 the National University of Ireland – Galway joined the partnership and developed the model to give students a chance to interact together to deepen their professional identity and develop their knowledge of global health and social care issues.
This year, students heard from external speakers and worked with local charities to identify occupational gaps in their services. To end the week students presented their ideas at a conference streamed live to all participating institutions.
Project lead, Dr Juliette Truman stresses the importance of working with partner institutions:
“With greater diversity within our own communities and the need for health and social care professions to seek new solutions to manage health and social care demands, universities are charged with developing creative and resilient practitioners. International approaches like this offer new ways of equipping and inspiring our students to work differently.”
If you are interested in developing your curricula in this way and would like to know more contact Dr Juliette Truman: [email protected]
