Asian Association of Veterinary Schools (AAVS)AAVSPOSTThe latest news and updates from Asian Association of Veterinary Schools
Volume 3 | August 2022

IN THIS ISSUE

02

MESSAGE FROMTHE PRESIDENT

05

REPORT OF VER
WEBINAR

03

MESSAGE FROMTHE SECRETARY
GENERAL07

UPCOMING
EVENTSAAVS Strategic Plan 2022 – 2026
The Launch of Two Working Groups1Aug. 2022

AAVS

Vol. 3MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENTby Prof. Dr Abdul Rahman Omar, the University of Putra Malaysia
AAVS Strategic Plan 2022-2026
I hope all AAVS members are keeping safe as we progress to the third quarter of 2022 as many countries have opened
their borders. We launched our five years Strategic Plan (2022-2026) early this year with four strategic goals, including 1)
Enhancing Veterinary Education, 2) Promoting Training and Development Programs, 3) Strengthening One Health
Concept, and 4) Enhancing Operational and Partnerships. AAVS established two working groups working on two key
components of veterinary education, Veterinary Education Enhancement (VEE) and Veterinary Education Research (VER).
I am pleased to see progress in planning the activities, although most of our activities are conducted online by theworking groups.
We conducted our very first webinar on Veterinary Educational Research (VER) by inviting experts from the UnitedKingdom. VER is a relatively new field but is rapidly growing and emerging as a discipline in its own right. The webinar
was a huge success, and we are pleased to know that some of our members are already performing evidence-basedteaching and assessment practice, although much of the information was not published. We notice the importance ofstrengthening the faculty development and training in VER since it helps develop the appropriate assessment tools forevaluating our veterinary teaching and learning process.
One fundamental approach to enhancing veterinary education is collaborating with other regional organizations thatshare a common interest in strengthening veterinary education in Asia. We are pleased with the formation of a joint
education committee between AAVS and the Federation of Asian Veterinary Associations (FAVA). This joint committee
will develop the core curriculum and self-assessment tool and standardize the Day-One Competency for Veterinary
School in Asia. The development of standardized Day One Competencies will enhance the harmonization of veterinary
professional curricula in Asia and also might be a good tool to emphasize the complex, multidisciplinary, and chain
approached nature of veterinary education and profession. In line with our Strategic Plan, we hope AAVS can serve
better the veterinary students in Asia by providing educational resources of regional interest on important topics related
to transboundary diseases, zoonotic diseases and antimicrobial resistance. We realize the strategic plan is very
ambitious, but we are confident we can get it done if we work together collectively, capitalizing on our strengths andovercoming challenges and limitations.

2Aug. 2022

Vol. 3AAVSMESSAGE FROM THE
SECRETARY GENERALby Prof. Takeshi Haga, the University of Tokyo
The AAVS Post, an electronic newsletter for AAVS members,
began in 2021 to provide AAVS members with various
updates from the AAVS Secretariat and to serve as aplatform for information sharing among members. It waspublished twice last year, and this is the second year and thethird issue.

Asian Veterinary Association (FAVA)
has also been
established, and kick-off meeting was held in July. InNovember, 21st FAVA Congress will be held in Fukuoka,
Japan, where cooperation of AAVS with FAVA will be discussed
in a session on veterinary education.
Asia is indeed a diverse region. Although the COIVD-19
pandemic dealt a heavy blow to international exchange,science and technology are bringing international exchange
into a new stage towards the Post COVID-19 Era, such as thewidely use of the online technology and the development ofautomatic translation capabilities. In order to overcome ourchallenges common to Asia through cooperation andharmony while respecting its diversity, I would like to ask foryour continued cooperation and support in revitalizing theactivities of the AAVS.

For more than 20 years since its establishment in 2001, AAVS
has promoted friendship and information exchange amongits member universities at its annual meetings. During thistime, however, social situation related to veterinary
profession in Asia have changed dramatically, and the AAVS
has had to play a greater role. In 2016, the fourth OIE Global
Congress on Veterinary Education was held in Bangkok,
where the status of accreditation bodies in the region and indifferent countries was presented, showing that in Asia,
there are variations. Around the same time, the AAVS
conference also proposed accreditation body in Asia, and apolicy to consolidate information on the website, which waslaunched in 2016, was put forward. Although an
accreditation body for veterinary education in Asia is to beestablished in the future, progress has been slow.

Lastly, I would like to express my gratitude to the WOAH/OIE
staffs for their support and to the WOAH/OIE fellows fromAAVS member universities for their cooperation in publishing
this newsletter.

In 2017, we strengthened our secretariat function, located at
the University of Tokyo, by registering the legal
establishment in Japan (AAVS Office), and the AAVS Office is
now supported by the World Organization of Animal Health(WOAH/OIE) Asia and Pacific Regional Office. Due to theCOIVD-19 pandemic, we have not been able to hold face-toface meetings since 2020, but, on the other hand, online
technology has enabled us to overcome the difficult times byholding frequent virtual events. In this vein, the need torecognize our common challenges in Asia and the need for aplan to overcome these challenges was discussed.
As stated in the President's message, the Strategic Plan(2022-2026) was developed in March this year; it addresses
the issues of veterinary education and lifelong education as
well as the training of veterinarians necessary. It also calls forthe strengthening of veterinary training programs, thestrengthening of the One Health Concept, and thepromotion of partnerships with various stakeholders. To
implement this plan, the AAVS has established and initiated
two working groups on veterinary education; Veterinary
Education Enhancement (VEE; chair: Prof Omar and co-chairProf Chang), and Veterinary Education Research (VER; Chair:Prof Zaneb). A joint education committee with Federation of3

Aug. 2022

Vol. 3AAVS

AAVS Strategic Plan 2022-2026

13Enhancing
VeterinaryEducation

Strengthening
One HealthConcept

To improve the quality ofPromoting
Training andDevelopment
Programs

24

veterinary education
To promote the harmonizationof veterinary education
To collaborate with various
stakeholders on regional
veterinary program accreditation

To strengthen education andtraining on One Health topics

EnhancingOperationalandPartnerships

To advocate policy and activities
on One Health
To promote research anddevelopment of integrative
approaches in addressing
issues on One Health

To promote collaboration inresearch, symposia, training andany other activities
To promote staff and expert
exchange and mobility
To promote student exchangeand mobility

To effectively communicate withvarious stakeholders
To increase visibility and linkages
To promote partnerships withvarious stakeholders of mutualinterest and benefit

The Launch of Two Working Groups
VETERINARYEDUCATION
ENHANCEMENT (VEE)

VETERINARYEDUCATIONRESEARCH (VER)

Chair: Prof Abdul R. Omar

Chair: Prof Hafsa Zaneb

Co-chair: Prof Fang-Chia Chang4Aug. 2022

Vol. 3AAVSREPORT OF VER WEBINARVETERINARY EDUCATIONALRESEARCH IN ASIA –POTENTIAL WAY FORWARD

A webinar organized by AAVS Working Group on Veterinary Education
Research (VER-WG) - 31st of May 2022
by Dr. Yumiko SHIMIZU and Martina Marina
Welcome Remarks

1.

2. Veterinary educational research is challenging:a. It falls in the social sciences domainb. It is not necessarily built on hypothesis-driven
research and the methodologies of social sciences
are different from quantitative research what we arefamiliar with.
3. There are many peered reviewed journals in higher
education and medical education. However, there are
only few peered reviewed journals in veterinary
education, and it takes at least one year to get published
in JVME. It may be time to create a new publication onveterinary education for Asia.
4. Conclusions + final message:a. Justify our teaching and assessment approaches
b. Provide the best learning experiences to our students
c. Prepare a generation of veterinarians with the skills totackle problems of tomorrow to enhance care,welfare, food safety and well-being of humans,
animals, and the planet.

Dr. Hafsa Zaneb from University of Veterinary & Animal
Sciences, Lahore Pakistan, the Chair of AAVS Working Groupon Veterinary Education Research (VER-WG), extended herwarm welcome to the participants and speakers. She
mentioned that this is the first webinar from VER-WG andthat the purpose of this webinar is to encourage countries
from Asia to collaborate more in the field of veterinary
educational research.
Dr. Abdul R. Omar, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary
Medicine of Universiti Putra Malaysia and the President ofAAVS, expressed his warm welcome to the webinar
participants and speakers. He noted that the main objectivesof this webinar are to impart awareness regarding theessentials of veterinary educational research and to support
the AVVS member institutions in developing evidence-based
educational policies and initiatives. He also mentioned that
one of AAVS’ strategic goal is to enhance the quality ofveterinary education and to harmonise veterinary
educational standards across Asia. He hoped that throughveterinary education research, the AVVS can establish
datasets to develop proper assessment tools for veterinary
schools in Asia. Lastly, he appreciated the speakers for
accepting the webinar invitation and expressed his hope thatthe participants will participate enthusiastically.

"Be brave, take the challenge, and do educational
research"

Veterinary Educational Research in Asia - The Way
Forward (Prof. Ayona Silva-Fletcher from Royal
Veterinary College University of London)
Summary of the presentation:
1. Veterinary education is an academic discipline, consistingof:
a. Branch of learning or scholarly instruction
b. Scholarly
activities(publications/conferences,networks)
c. Research and knowledge generation

5Aug. 2022

Vol. 3AAVS
Experience sharing by AAVS Members

Qualitative research in action: what it can tell us andwhat it can’t (Prof. Liz Armitage-Chan from Royal
Veterinary College University of London)

Veterinary Educational Research in NLU, Vietnam(Assoc. Prof. Dr. Le Quang Thong from Nong Lam
University, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam): Veterinary
educational research in NLU, OIE project: “Veterinary
Education Twinning Project” with Veterinary School of theUniversity of Queensland, Australia, and ReVETproject:”Reinforcement of Veterinary Studies in AsianUniversities” between 4 veterinary schools in Europe and10 faculty of veterinary medicine in Asia
My Journey in Veterinary Educational Research(Assistant Prof. Dr. Rebecca Parkes from City
University of Hong Kong): Current pending projects ona) Identifying and sharing innovations in clinical skills
teaching globally developed during the COVID-19
pandemic, b) AR (Augmented Reality) in feline physicalexamination, c) PBL, and d) Clinical skills models
development, and going forward.

1. Prof. Liz shared an example of research question: how
are the engagement and learning outcomes ofdistance learning students who are in work
affected by personal, social and course influences?
She talked about:a. The methodb. Study designc. Interview questions (experiential, grounded in thetheoretical framework)
d. Data analysis processe. What they have achieved
f. What they haven’t achieved
g. “So what” – are their findings valid, useful andtransferable?
1.

2. Key messages:

Panel discussion
Summary of the panel discussion can be found here
Closing Remarks
Prof. Fang-Chia Chang, Dean of School of Veterinary Medicine
of National Taiwan University and the Vice President of AAVS,
gave the closing remarks for this webinar. He mentioned thatthe aim of this webinar is to initiate veterinary educational
research among the AAVS institutions. He thanked all thespeakers and participants. He believed that this webinar isjust the beginning of the AAVS working group on Veterinary
Education Research (VER-WG) and that the group willcontinue to enhance veterinary education quality andfacilitate in collaboration among AAVS members. Lastly, hethanked everyone for joining and he wished everyone to behealthy through this Covid-19 pandemic.

Status of initiatives related to Veterinary Educational
Research in member institutions of AAVS (Prof Hafsa
Zaneb from University of Veterinary & AnimalSciences, Lahore Pakistan)
1. This presentation shared the result of a survey
conducted about “Status of initiatives related to
Veterinary Educational Research in member institutionsof AAVS”
2. In total, there were 44 responses from 40 member
institutions
3. Conclusion:a. Some member institutions are already engaged withveterinary educational researchb. There are areas where member institutions canextend or seek support from each other such asi. Faculty development
ii. Collaborative educational researchiii. Establishment of institutional support to promote
educational research
4. This survey will help in future meeting to identify whatneeds to be done

*Presentations and videos are available on the AAVS website(click here)

6Aug. 2022

AAVS

Vol. 3

UPCOMING EVENTS

2ND ICAVESS
17-18 SEPTEMBER 2022

AAVS Veterinary Education Session: 17 September, from 12:3013:30 UTC+7 (Indonesia time)
AAVS-WOAH-UGM Session on AMR and Food Safety: One
Health education and the role of VEEs in Asia: 18 September,from 11:35-12:50 UTC+7 (Indonesia time)2022 AAVS INTERSCHOOLLECTURE ROUND
20 SEPTEMBER 2022

1st Lecture: “Avian Influenza virus of pandemic concerns” (Prof. Dr.
Abdul Rahman Omar, Universiti Putra Malaysia): 20 September,from 13:00-15:15 UTC+7 (Indonesia time), online by zoom
*Details of the lecture round and call for lecturers will be announced
from AAVS Office in September.

7Aug. 2022

AAVS

Vol. 3

UPCOMING EVENTS
21ST FAVA CONGRESS
11-13 NOVEMBER 2022

Veterinary Education Session: 13 November, from 13:00-15:10
UTC+9 (Japan time)

20TH AAVS ANNUALASSEMBLY MEETING
24 NOVEMBER 2022

20th AAVS Annual Assembly Meeting: 24 November, from 16:00-18:00
UTC+9 (Japan time)

THANK YOU FOR READING!
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT AVVS
Please visit AAVS Website (https://aavs.jpn.org/)

FOR COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS
Please contact us via AAVS website contact form or secretary@aavs.jpn.org

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