A cohort of students from an esteemed university in Bahrain have visited Keele’s sector-leading School of Medicine as part of an expanding international partnership. 

The delegation of 14 students from the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI-Bahrain) are visiting Keele for six weeks as part of their courses, to take part in Keele led training programmes. 

The partnership between Keele and the RCSI-Bahrain has been active for several years with the first cohort visiting Keele in 2019, and the partnership has continued to expand since then. 

As well as taking part in an in-person laboratory research training programme during their six-week visit, members of this year’s group are also the first to take part in an accelerated anatomy dissection programme at Keele’s Anatomy and Surgical Training Centre with a separate online research training course, both of which are being run for the first time this year. 

Professor Divya Maitreyi Chari, Dean of Internationalisation in the School of Medicine, said: “We are delighted that this Middle East partnership is continuing to grow and evolve in new directions. We are also really pleased to host the excellent medical and nursing students from RCSI-Bahrain. We are particularly excited to hear about the students' experience of our new Anatomy programme." 

Luke Welsh, Director of Anatomy at Keele, said: “We are excited to welcome our RCSI-Bahrain human anatomy students for the first time. We have a fantastic programme planned, with unique opportunities for the cohort to study anatomy via full body dissection and immersive technologies." 

Dr Maikki Cullen, Academic Director of Undergraduate Research, RCSI Medical University of Bahrain, added: “We are delighted to collaborate with Keele University in offering our students a unique opportunity to develop core research competencies through the biomedical research training programme, alongside gaining hands-on clinical insight through the accelerated Human Anatomy dissection course. This partnership exemplifies our shared commitment to delivering high-quality, immersive medical education.”