Maximising your career potential
WHETHER you’re an undergraduate choosing a university or a professional contemplating a return to higher education, you need to choose a course that will provide you with a stepping stone to an advanced position after graduation. If you choose wisely, postgraduate studies can be a rewarding pathway to enhance your competencies and maximise your career potential.
Health professions education is a field in which clinicians, health professions educators and administrators achieve mastery in the design and delivery of effective educational programmes that will result in high quality health services. International Medical University’s (IMU) postgraduate programmes in health professions education aim to create graduates with in-depth knowledge of educational principles and who practise internationally benchmarked assessment processes.
The educational objectives of this programme is to ensure graduates can manage and solve educational challenges at their own institutions and be recognised for their efforts at the national and regional levels. This programme is not only for healthcare professionals and educators, but also educational managers or administrators who are involved in the many processes of providing better educational programmes at their institution.
IMU pro-vice-chancellor of education Prof Vishna Devi Nadarajah embarked on such a journey. After examining her competencies as both an educator and researcher, coupled with her increasing involvement in educational management at IMU, she realised she needed to acquire a different set of knowledge and skills to adapt to the new roles given to her.
She enrolled in the Masters in Health Professions Education (MHPE), which she likens to an MBA for medical school educators. Graduating from the programme allowed her to have a positive impact on IMU, and it reflects well on an institution to have an internationally recognised education expert.
She adds that with IMU now offering MHPE, prospective students need no longer have to go overseas, as was the case 10 years ago, and says that the principle of benchmarking to international standards used in IMU’s undergraduate programmes is very much applied to MHPE.
This programme is also valuable to fresh graduates who have an interest in education and awaiting their internship placement as it can widen their choice of career. The knowledge and skills gained from the course will also help them make an informed decision at a later stage in their career as health professionals.
Recent graduates of IMU’s postgraduate degrees in health professions education have stated that the programme gave them a greater understanding of educational processes.
“The programme has helped me be a better teacher. After completing the programme, I am better able to comprehend the theories behind teaching and learning, that can be translated into better understanding of the aspects of education. In addition, it has also given me confidence to conduct educationrelated research,” says programme graduate Dr Kok Yih Yih.
IMU’s postgraduate degrees in health professions education includes both course work and research training, yielding a dissertation at the end of the master programme. It is possible to pursue the programme full time or part time. Flexible learning options include weekend classes as well as online learning.
The postgraduate certificate and diploma programmes are Malaysian Qualifications Agency accredited Level 7, while the master’s programme is provisionally accredited and is in the process of being fully accredited. IMU has been awarded a 6 Star: Outstanding rating under the Rating for Higher Education Institutions in Malaysia (Setara) 2017, and its programmes are periodically reviewed and restructured, keeping it in line with global standards.
IMU also offers postgraduate programmes in public health, analytical and pharmaceutical chemistry, molecular medicine, acupuncture, pharmacy practice, healthcare management, implant dentistry, diabetes management and education, and MSc and PhD by research.