S3RI is extending its ERASMUS links to Ege University in Izmir, Turkey
Professor Dankmar Boehning and Dr Stefanie Biedermann (both in the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute, University of Southampton) and Mr James Gallagher (Director of the Statistical Services Centre, University of Reading) recently returned from a week's visit to the University, Izmir, Turkey, as part of the ERASMUS Teaching Staff Mobility Programme.
This programme has been established while Professor Boehning was still at the University of Reading and has been now executed for the first as a new ERASMUS link between the Southampton Statistical Sciences Research Institute (S3RI) and the Department of Biostatistics of Ege University in Izmir (Turkey).
The programme aims to encourage higher education institutions to broaden and enrich the range and content of courses they offer, by enabling staff to teach at another institution in a participating country.
The three visited Ege's Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, continuing with their exchange of ideas related to teaching and research collaborations.
The centrepiece of their visit was the successful delivery of a three-day short course on Statistical Methods in Epidemiology. Organised by Prof Fikret Ikiz (a UK graduate in Applied Statistics), Dr Mehmet Orman and Dr Timur Kose, about 20 MSc and PhD students and junior staff from several Turkish universities learnt about these methods which is fundamental for any empirical medical research. Without these methods data arising from clinical trials, cohort studies or case-control studies could not be evaluated.
The three visitors from the UK said "We are hoping that future outcomes of this visit include joint research publications, recruitment of Statistics PhD students from Turkey, and the joint development of commercial statistics short courses in partnership with Ege University.
The organizers added "It is envisaged that such courses have the potential to be targeted not only at university students and staff in Turkish Universities but also from other countries in the Balkans and Middle East."