New Partnership Agreement with Kyushu University MAHIDOL UNIVERSITY (Thailand) Hideo Utsumi Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences

Organization
Mahidol University has fourteen faculties (Medicine Siriraj Hospital, Medicine Ramathibodi Hospital, Tropical Medicine, Public Health, Medicine Technology, Science, Graduate Studies, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Social Sciences and Humanities, Nursing, Engineering, Environment and Resource Studies, and Veterinary Science), six colleges, seven institutes, and six academic centers. In 1999, there are approximately 12,000 undergraduate students, 7,500 postgraduate students and 2,800 academic staff 4,200 academic assistants, and 4,300 administrative personnel. Students and Staff are located on three main campuses in Bangkok and a modern campus in Nakhon Pathom, 20 km west of Bangkok.
International Academic Co-operation in Mahidol University
Mahidol University is one of the most prestigious universities in Thailand and an internationally renowned institution, especially in the field of medicine and science. Its traditional prominence is reflected in its numerous international publications and many international awards. Indeed, some 50% of the international publications from all the science faculties in Thailand come from Mahidol University.

Mahidol University is one of the leaders in the " internationalization " of higher education, and has 154 of exchange agreements with foreign institutions including Kyushu University (the Faculties of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Agriculture). More recently, Mahidol University has expanded the number of academic courses taught in English (110 courses in total 500, and more than half of 45 Ph.D. courses), and students from 45 different countries are currently enrolled in various programs at the University.

Partnership with Kyushu University
Taken as a whole, the history and profile of Mahidol University is quite similar to that of Kyushu University. And, in August of 2000, an agreement for academic co-operation and a memorandum on student exchange were first signed up by the Faculty of Science, Mahidol University and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University, and then between the Faculty of Science, Mahidol University and the Faculty of Agriculture, Kyushu University. The faculty of Science was founded as a Premedical School of Mahidol University in 1958, and has some departments relating to faculties of Pharmaceutical Sciences and Agriculture in Kyushu University.
Thereafter, the additional agreement was signed between the Faculty of Pharmacy, Mahidol University and the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University. There are also some collaborations between both universities' schools of medicine in the research of diseases including Malaria and Thalassemia, and both deans have visited each other.

Last December, the "2000 Conference of Asian University Presidents" was held at Kyushu University. The Reprisentatives of Mahidol University were invited to the Conference and discussed with Kyushu University's faculty members the possibility of beginning new cooperative relations. All of these endeavors may produce more tight and successful partnership not only between Mahidol University and Kyushu University but also in "KUARO" (Kyushu University Asian Research Organization).
For more information on Mahidol University, please visit:
http://www.mahidol.ac.th

Dr. Hideo Utsumi obtained doctor's degree from Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, University of Tokyo in 1976. After taking positions at Teikyo University and Showa University, he became a professor, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University in 1994. He is specialized in In vivo ESR-CT and Reactive Oxygen Species in Diseases or Environmental Pollutants. From 1990, he is collaborating with Profs. Udom and Suthat in Mahidol University about Thalassemia Disease, and accepted students from Thailand. From 1996 to 2000, he was the leader of the Research Project for Creation of Future Environment in Environmental Agency.