The document discusses efforts to increase the number of doctors trained in Malawi through collaboration between the University of St Andrews and the Bute Medical School. It notes that Malawi has very few doctors, with only one doctor per 200,000 people, and the collaboration aims to help address this through curriculum redesign, IT and library improvements, and increasing the number of students trained from 17 to more per year. It outlines some issues identified like lack of journal access, IT infrastructure challenges, and an unorganized collection, and discusses solutions developed through the collaboration.

1. Increasing the number of
doctors in Malawi
Vicki Cormie
Senior Academic Liaison Librarian (Science
& Medicine), University of St Andrews

2. University of St Andrews
The University
• Fife, Scotland
• Third oldest University in the UK
• Research Intensive
• Scores highly in student satisfaction surveys
Bute Medical School
• Pre-clinical
• Major curriculum redesign
• New Medical Science Buildings
• Increase in students
The Library
• Oldest continuing functioning library in
Scotland (possibly!)
• Outstanding Special Collections
• Small and rapidly developing

3. Why Malawi?
• Scotland Malawi
Partnership
• Historic Links with
the Bute Medical
School

4. Why Malawi?
• Scotland Malawi
Partnership
• Historic Links with
the Bute Medical
School

5. • Very undeveloped
• Densely populated
• One of the four poorest countries in the world
• Low life expectancy
• High incidence of HIV/AIDS

6. • Low numbers of students in HE
• Only one doctor per 200,000 people
• Until last year only 17 doctors being
trained per year
• High failure rate
• Problems retaining doctors in Malawi

7. £252,000 Scottish Government Funding for:
• radical redesign of the curriculum
• major improvements to IT services
• revamp of registry and infrastructure
• improvements to the Library to help cope with the changes

8. Identify issues:
• Lack of access to journals
• Poor IT infrastructure
• Challenges of self-directed learning
• Lack of a Collections Policy
• The ‘Book Bank’
• Best use of space

9. Access to journals:
• Problem wasn’t what it seemed
• Issues with access
• CUFTS open source serials management

11. Challenges of self-directed learning
• Development of information skills sessions at key
points in the curriculum
• Online resources available through the new VLE

12. Collections Policy
• Donation culture
• Cataloguing priorities

13. The ‘Book Bank’
Academic reengagement with Libraries:
• Education about the purpose of Libraries
• Advocacy on behalf of the Library
• Better use of resources

15. Space Utilization

16. Future
directions

17. Any questions?