Belmont University recently hosted faculty from Hawler Medical University in Arbil, capital of Kurdistan Region of Iraq.

Belmont Professor and Chair of Pharmaceutical Science Andy Webster and Director of International Student Services Kathryn Skinner oversaw the training of the four faculty members from Hawler’s College of Pharmacy in health care informatics, pharmacy management and administration, communication, counseling and patient assessment, and didactic and clinical experiential education.Discussions included syllabus design and development, introduction to modern pedagogical principles and practices and an introduction to designing, developing and maintaining contemporary clinical practice environments. The Kurdish faculty became qualified as affiliate faculty members of Belmont’s School of Pharmacy.

Webster visited Kurdish Iraq in 2009 and was appointed to the Kurdistan Regional Government Curriculum Development Project.

“The focus of this project was to modify and update the professional pharmacy curriculum for the colleges of pharmacy in the Kurdish region of Iraq. This newly developed curriculum provides students a broad, solid grounding in the basic and clinical sciences, epistemologies and values that define contemporary pharmacy practice,” Webster said. “This sets a new educational standard for both students and faculty in that area of the world.”