Course on Public Health Brings Together Students from Australia and New Zealand at UC Chile

In January, a new edition of the program “Intercultural Approaches for Public Health” was held, organized jointly by the UC Chile Office of the Vice President for International Affairs and the School of Nursing, bringing together UC Students with students from international universities. The initiative enabled participants from diverse cultural backgrounds to explore the challenges of public health in Chile and Latin America, fostering the exchange of perspectives and experiences on this topic. 

For this edition, UC Chile hosted the course, which welcomed students from three universities in Oceania: University of New South Wales and University of Auckland, from New Zealand, and University of Technology Sydney, from Australia. 

With an intercultural and holistic perspective on wellbeing, the academic program allowed students from different countries to explore the challenges and opportunities of the Chilean healthcare system, as well as learn about the medicinal traditions of the Mapuche and Aymara peoples, addressing different ways of understanding the processes of health and disease, in dialogue with contemporary practices. 

This course covers topics specific to the fields of health and social sciences, while also promoting the development of global competencies aimed at proposing solutions in diverse settings, encouraging cooperation and innovation among both UC Chile students and the young visitors. In academic terms, the course provided interdisciplinary tools that brought together experiences in various fields of knowledge with the goal of understanding caregiving processes in diverse sociocultural contexts. 

“We had an incredible experience with the teachers, and the information they taught us allowed me to really compare my experience in Australia with the way the system works here in Chile, and this was very rewarding,” relates Emma Powell, a student from University of Technology Sydney. 

During their visit to Chile and this University, the students participated in lectures on theory, immersive experiences, and field trips, where they were able to learn firsthand about Chile’s public health system, sociocultural norms, and how these impact people’s daily routines. During a busy schedule, they toured the clinical campuses of the UC Christus Network; visited a Ruka, a traditional Mapuche house, in Macul; and took field trips to the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art, the Museum of Memory & Human Rights, and Valparaíso. 

“UC Chile has beautiful campuses. My university in Sydney is very much integrated into the city, so it was really lovely to have so much green space and be able to just sit down and have a chat with new friends in between classes, because we learned so much in this program,” added Powell. 

This course was held as part of the UC Chile summer programs, initiatives that welcomed more than 60 international students during January to an environment of collaboration and shared learning that offers an unforgettable academic, professional, and personal experience.