BY KHOIRUN NISA AHMAD
MERCK Foundation (MF), a nonprofit company and subsidiary of Merck KGaA Germany, and the University of Malaya (UM), Malaysia’s oldest and most established institution of higher learning, signed a Memorandum of Understanding on 10 January 2018 aimed at providing
fellowship training for post-graduate medical trainees from Africa and other developing countries.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Datuk Dr Mary Yap Kain Ching, Deputy Minister of Higher Education Malaysia.
Professor Dr Frank Stangenberg- Haverkamp, Chairman of Executive Board of E-Merck KG and Chairman of Board of Trustees of Merck Foundation said, “We are delighted to partner with the University of Malaya, to provide clinical training and fellowship programmes to young healthcare practitioners from Africa and other developing countries”.
The MF-UM collaboration would facilitate academic support to postgraduate medical trainees in the fields of diabetes, oncology and infertility.
Datuk Ir Dr Abdul Rahim Hashim, Vice-Chancellor of UM, remarked that UM readily welcomed the collaboration with MF. He said, “Many of our own medical professionals have, in the past, benefited from training in the United Kingdom and Australia. It befalls us to reach out and help others now.
“For UM, the partnership with MF reaffirms our standing and role as Malaysia’s oldest and most established higher learning institution. It also contributes towards our nation’s
aspiration of gaining global prominence as an international education hub with a difference.” — UM
