Academics from the Arabian Gulf University presented two presentations that embodied the university’s role in innovation in health education and enhancing quality and social accountability systems in accordance with the highest international standards, at the International Medical Education Conference IMEC-ICME 2025, which was recently hosted by the International Medical University (IMU) in Malaysia.
Head of the Department of Biochemistry at the College of Medicine and Health Sciences, Dr. May Sater, presented the first scientific presentation entitled “Arabian Gulf University as a Regional Model for Stakeholder Participation in Higher Education and Health Education.” The presentation highlighted the university’s approach to building bridges between global educational frameworks such as the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) standards and realistic needs and regional labor markets, within a comprehensive vision in harmony with the Gulf Cooperation Council’s 2030 vision.
She stressed during the presentation that the involvement of stakeholders transforms educational reforms from scattered efforts into an integrated system of trust and cooperation, noting that the Arabian Gulf University makes participation an integral part of governance and institutional culture, not just a symbolic appearance, through an integrated governance system that includes the General Conference, the Board of Trustees, and the University Council, ensuring the representation of decision makers from government agencies, ministries, and industrial sectors, in addition to academics.
Dr. Sater reviewed the Academic Chairs Program at the Arabian Gulf University, which is supported by Gulf leaders such as Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, and Sultan Qaboos bin Said, as a model for transforming regional investment into sustainable knowledge and research leadership, providing practical examples of the university’s efforts to engage various stakeholder groups.
She cited a number of initiatives, such as making students and faculty members partners in development, through the “Quality Voices” initiative, which enables students to participate in quality committees and develop curricula in accordance with WFME and NCAAA standards, and making governments and employers strategic partners, as the university works to align its programs with Vision 2030 to ensure that the outputs are compatible with the needs of the Gulf labor market, as in the benchmarking project with the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI).
In the context of initiatives, she pointed to the role of society and patients as partners in social accountability, through their involvement in college councils and basic committees, to enhance the connection of health education with the real needs of society, stressing, “The globalization of medical education cannot be imposed from above, but rather it is built in partnership with those who live the experience and create it. We must build high-quality, high-trust educational systems.”
During the conference, for her part, Assistant Professor of Medical Education at the Arabian Gulf University, Dr. Archana Prabhu Kumar, presented the second research presentation entitled: “Verifying the effectiveness of training simulated patients to teach and evaluate history-taking skills among medical students in the specialty of obstetrics and gynecology,” explaining that the research, in which a multidisciplinary team from the departments of medical education, obstetrics and gynecology, anatomy, community medicine, and the Medical Skills and Simulation Center participated, aims to develop an organized training program for simulated patients that ensures realism, consistency, and educational quality in evaluating students’ skills. Clinical.
She said: “The power of simulation does not lie in realism alone, but in the ability to reflect and learn through practice and feedback in a safe environment. This project reflects AGU’s firm commitment to evidence-based education, interdisciplinary collaboration, and continuous quality improvement in accordance with the standards of the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) and the National Academic Accreditation Commission (NCAAA).”
The Arabian Gulf University’s participation in the IMEC-ICME 2025 conference embodies its unified vision towards high-quality health education, based on partnership, innovation, and social accountability, in the context of strengthening its position as a regional beacon of cooperation and academic excellence, in preparation for hosting the upcoming global event, the International Conference on Medical Education (ICME 2027) in the capital, Manama, in partnership with Rafah International University (Pakistan).
