Internationalization

The Faculty of Medicine at the Arab American University was the first in Palestine to obtain membership in the Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE), a well-established international organization in the field of medical education. This Association includes more than 90 members from many countries around the world. This membership brings many benefits to the Faculty and its staff, such as providing faculty members and researchers with access to a wide range of information, resources and professional development opportunities, in addition to joining an international network of teachers, trainers, educators, students and organizations committed to promoting excellence in teaching and learning in the health professions. Membership also enhances the University’s participation in many activities held by the Association, such as participating in MedEd World or publishing in the AMEE Newsletter.

The Faculty of Medicine has built strategic relationships at all levels with the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Dundee through signing a joint cooperation agreement. This agreement includes academic exchange, student exchange, and scientific research, in addition to contributions to the development of the Faculty of Medicine plan with the membership of both Professor Ronald Harden and Dr David Russell on the Advisory Board of the Faculty of Medicine. Annual summer schools are held for third-year students at the Faculty of Medicine in Dundee, 20 students participated in the academic year 2022/2023 and 20 students in the current academic year 2023/2024, in addition to many workshops aimed at developing the competencies of the faculty’s teaching staff.

The Arab American University and the University of Glasgow in the United Kingdom have signed a cooperation agreement with the aim of enhancing medical cooperation between the two universities and training medical students from the Arab American University on the university campus in the United Kingdom. This agreement comes within the AAUP's efforts to build relations with a number of universities in the United Kingdom to contribute to the development of scientific and medical cooperation and to provide opportunities for medical students to gain valuable clinical experience and practical training that helps them develop their medical skills through direct communication in a distinguished medical environment. A number of students will participate in the summer school at the University of Glasgow this year.

This cooperation can be summed up in the student and academic exchange between the Faculty of Medicine at the Arab American University and the Faculty of Medicine at Oxford University. Twenty students are sent annually to Oxford University, with the aim of opening up horizons of knowledge for students and numerous opportunities for graduates of the Faculty of Medicine to get acquainted with the British medical system, in addition to networking in a way that paves the way for students to specialize easily in Britain after graduation.

An agreement was also concluded with Oxford Medical Education via Simulation Technology (a company affiliated with Oxford University and specializes in virtual medical education) through the Oxford-Palestine Foundation, to provide medical students at the Arab American University with licenses that will enable them to use the Oxford platform for virtual reality medical education technology. This platform provides many clinical cases, through which students can learn in a virtual environment, in order to enhance their clinical and medical skills, in preparation for their training in hospitals, and interacting directly with patients.

The Arab American University has been linked to a research and medical cooperation agreement with the University of Exeter in Britain since 2019, through which academics were exchanged. Moreover, many applied genetic research articles were conducted and published, and a database was established that links demographic and clinical information with genetic and molecular information for the sake of enhancing the future research center's ability to guide the health system towards the best ways to deal with genomic and genetic diseases, based on information obtained from the database. Within this agreement, a delegation from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Exeter in Britain visited the Faculty of Medicine at the Arab American University, as part of the research project on rare and common genetic diseases in Palestinian society.

This cooperation is a platform for medical students from all over the world to meet, exchange ideas, plan activities to improve global health, and achieve the vision of the International Federation of Medical Students. This is to empower medical students and help them make change and involve young people in decision-making. The International Federation includes thousands of students from different countries around the world, such as the Middle East, Europe, Africa, East Asia, North and South America. The club’s activities include holding training workshops for students in various health fields, in addition to workshops on decision-making and changing the laws on which the International Federation is based. It provides an opportunity for medical students to showcase the distinguished activities they have held in their countries, and to encourage medical students around the world to participate in or imitate them.