Abstract:

The World University Network (WUN) is a leading global partnership comprised of 24 research universities dedicated to fostering international collaboration and addressing critical challenges facing societies worldwide. Established in 2000, WUN brings leading universities from various regions, spanning North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australasia. Leveraging its member universities' broad expertise and resources, WUN seeks to tackle complex issues across multiple disciplines, including health, sustainability, inequality, and more, by facilitating collaborative research initiatives, student exchanges, and academic mobility programs among its member institutions. In recent decades, there has been a notable expansion of the health humanities field on a global scale. This represents a significant evolution in understanding of and approaches to healthcare and medical education. Traditionally, medical education has been dominated by a focus on biomedical knowledge and technical skills, often overlooking the complex human dimensions of health and illness. However, the emergence and growth of the health humanities have highlighted the importance of incorporating insights from the arts, humanities, and social sciences into healthcare practice and education. In 2019, WUN supported a health humanities project initiative led by Dr. Sandra Carr at the University of Western Australia, which focused on "the development of the patient-centred and compassionate health professional through education." This initiative brought diverse participants from WUN member universities and external partners, resulting in substantive academic outcomes such as conference presentations and publications. This presentation explores the experience of participants involved in the WUN Health Humanities Initiative, focusing on how members of this diverse group (from different universities, disciplines, and levels of engagement in health education and the health humanities) were influenced by their involvement in the project. In addition, it explores the broader impacts of the initiative, such as expanded global awareness and intercultural competency, heightened appreciation of international and interdisciplinary collaboration, the establishment of new global collaborations and international partnerships, new innovative research projects, as well as contributions to local and national health humanities initiatives, extending appreciation of the value of internationally networked university initiatives. Building on the achievements of the WUN Health Humanities Initiative, plans are being developed to further engage the WUN membership, showcase the project's successful outcomes, and explore new pressing questions and collaborative opportunities, given ongoing WUN funding. Outreach to additional member universities with established or emerging health humanities programs or initiatives, or interest in this area, is planned to explore interest in establishing a globally connected WUN Health Humanities Networking Hub to help continue advancing the field of health humanities and its contributions to medicine and healthcare.

Keywords:

World University Network (WUN), global partnership, international collaboration, health humanities, health professions education, medicine.