The agreement, which was signed on Tuesday, 25 June 2013, by Dr. Huw Thomas, the Dean of the Tuft University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM), and Dr. Lluís Giner, aims to establish exchange programmes for undergraduate students, academic cooperation and research between the two universities.
Dr. Nosh Mehta, the Vice Dean of the TUSDM, visited the UIC with Dr. Huw Thomas. During their three-day stay, Dr. Mehta and Dr. Thomas visited the facilities on the Sant Cugat campus, were able to see how the University Dental Clinic is run and experienced a typical day in the faculty.
The agreement is an extension of the previous agreement between the UIC and Tuft University, which allowed students in the UIC Master’s Degree Programme in Periodontics to spend time studying at Tuft. “This new agreement will allow undergraduate students to spend a term there, something which was very complicated to do until now. And, thanks to a change in the law there, these students may also practice on patients along with American students, just as they do in our faculty”, explained Dr. Lluis Giner, the Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry.
With these agreements, several students in the Master’s Degree Programme in Periodontics have spent time studying at Tuft University in recent years. In 2013, three students were there from 26 May to 11 June and three more spent from 6 to 23 June. One of these students was Lucia Peleado, who said, “We were given the chance to take classes for students in the Master’s Degree Programme in Periodontics and attended seminars to discuss different issues and present cases”.
Thanks to the new agreement, students will have the opportunity to continue with these exchanges over the next few academic years. Dr. Giner was very pleased with the move forward. “Some will end up staying there”, he said, “and that is a step toward the internationalization and globalization we are committed to”.
