Brief presentation of Faculty of Health Sciences, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.

1. Arctic Experience –
Global Focus
Faculty of Health Sciences
UiT - The Arctic University of Norway

2. Tromsø: Gateway to the Arctic
69°40′N, 18°56′E
Located at the same latitude as
Siberia and Alaska
• Population: 70 000 (urban area)
• Students: 9 500
• The 8th largest city in Norway
• More than 140 nationalities
represented

3. UiT – The Arctic University of Norway:
The world’s northernmost university
• A classical university with a wide range of
subjects taught
• More than 300 programs
• Centers of Excellence, Innovation, Peace
and Conflict Transformation, Sami
studies, Telemedicine, Women research,
Biotechnology, Traditional Medicine etc.

4. The Faculty of Health Sciences:
Unique comprehensive academic activity
The Faculty of Health Sciences conducts
research, educates students and shares its
research results in almost every area of
health science.
• Psychology
• Biology
• Community medicine
• Clinical medicine
• Pharmacy
• Dentistry
And a host of health-related subjects, which
are normally University College subjects.

5. Programs (students/year)
• Medicine – 6 years (100)
• Dentistry – 5 years (40)
• Psychology – 6 years (35)
• Pharmacy – 5 years (35)
• Bioengineering (20)
• Dental hygiene (18)
• Occupational therapy (24)
• Nursing (145), public health
nursing (20), midwife (20)
• Physiotherapy (28)
• Radiography (30)
• Masters in Biomedicine (15),
Telemedicine (5-10), Laboratory
medicine
Facts - The Faculty of Health
Sciences:
8 departments
970 employees
3000 students
300 PhD-students

6. Learning by Doing: Proximity in Practice
• Practical training from the very beginning: We work closely with the
University Hospital of North Norway and with the municipalities in
Northern Norway for internships.
• Focus on patient interaction
• Communication between the various health care professions is an
important part of education
• Research-based teaching, meaning that our students are allowed to
participate in ongoing research.
• The medical research study allows students to do a short PhD after
having finished medical school.

7. Student Clinic:
Dental students Yngve Åkre (behind) and
Patryk D. Larsen treat real patients at
Norway’s most modern dental clinic.

8. Exchange Programs and Education in English
Exchange programmes:
• The Faculty of Health Sciences provides exchange programmes
through Erasmus, Nordplus, North-2North and Barentsplus.
• Bilateral agreements allow students to apply outside of these networks.
Education in English:
• UiT offers English master’s degrees in telemedicine, biomedicine and
public health.
• Courses in gynaecology, obstetrics, paediatrics, genetics and geriatrics
are offered in English during the autumn semester of the fourth year of
medical school.

9. Research for the Future
Our research covers a wide spectrum
from elderly care, dental health,
pharmaceutical studies and psychology
to medical and biological research.
One of our distinguishing characteristics
of our research is the use of population
surveys.
Our extensive biobanks are used by
researchers worldwide.
Notable research:
• Women and Cancer
• The Tromsø Survey
• The Ocean’s Treasures
• Arctic Health Research

10. NOWAC
– the Norwegian Women and Cancer Study
Random samples of Norwegian women
• 172 000 female participants recruited
1991-2006
• Questionnaire information, repeated up
till three times
• Follow-up through linkage to national
registers, and active search for biopsies
of breast cancer and normal breast
tissue
• Postgenome biobank with 50000 PAX
tubes, plasma and ”buffy coat” (DNA)

11. The Tromsø Survey
• Population based study in Tromsø, run by UiT
• Starting point in 1974: High cardiovascular mortality in
North-Norway
• Study extended to cancer, osteoporosis, diabetes, dementia
– i.a. chronic diseases in ageing population, and skin
diseases, bacterial colonization
• Screenings in 1974, 1979, 1986, 1994, 2001, 2008
• Repeated measurements and new birth cohorts
• Linked to disease and death registries of Norway
• A total of 40,000 participants
• New screenings planned in 2015

12. MabCent: Screen and characterize
bioactive compound from Arctic and sub-
Arctic marine organisms
Research, innovation and
commercialization
o Anti-bacterial, anti-cancer,
immunostimulants, anti-inflammatory,
anti-diabetic, antioxidant
o Specific enzyme activities and
inhibitors
www.nfh.uit.no/mabcent

13. Arctic Health Research
With our location “at the edge of the
Arctic”, we naturally tend to focus on
the north, and arctic health research.
Our research covers topics such as
cold, the dark, special nutrition related
issues, the influence of environmental
factors, vitamin D and sunlight in the
far north.

14. Research collaboration Norway – Russia
UiT collaborates with researchers all over the world, such as Russia.
Examples of collaboration with Russia, are:
• A large arctic study on prenatal care, focusing on the effect of
ecotoxins on foetal development and early childhood.
• A project related to diphteria, HIV and sexually transmitted diseases
and infections in north-western Russia.
• Graduate School in Russia: UiT in collaboration with experts from the
UK, is in the process of building a graduate school in Arkhangelsk,
focusing on cardiovascular disease in Russia.

15. "If you are interested in arctic health
research like me, Tromsø is the place to
be. The research environment is so
friendly and inclusive.“
Ammar E. Ali Hassan, scientist UiT,
originally from Sudan

16. uit.no/helsefak