Penn's School of Dental Medicine recently announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Yeditepe University Faculty of Dentistry to advance global dental education, research, and clinical training through faculty exchanges and joint initiatives.
Yeditepe University is an institution in Istanbul, Turkey consisting of 13 faculties across various academic areas, including dentistry. The collaboration between Yeditepe University's Faculty of Dentistry and Penn was formalized during the 2024 World Dental Federation Conference, held in Istanbul from Sept. 12–15 to bring together leaders in dentistry to discuss research and educational developments in the field.
Morton Amsterdam Dean Dr. Mark Wolff and dental school faculty traveled to Turkey participate in the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding with Yeditepe’s Dean Dr. Bahar Eren Kuru.
Yeditepe was recently accredited by the Commission on Dental Accreditation, making it the second non-North American institution to receive this recognition. The accreditation means that graduates from Yeditepe University receive dental degrees with equivalent rights to those obtained in the United States.
"We are thrilled to establish this collaborative relationship with Yeditepe University through this MOU,” Wolff said in the dental school announcement. “This partnership offers tremendous opportunities for academic and clinical growth for both institutions.”
Partnerships like this one aim to strengthen the academic and clinical aspects of both Penn and Yeditepe. In addition to the conference, Wolff joined faculty and alumni on a six-day trip to Turkey called "Where East Meets West."
In 2023, the Dental School signed two MOUs with the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, and the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Most recently before that, the Dental School signed an MOU with Hiroshima University in Japan in 2015. The school now has a total of 35 international MOUs.
Other Penn schools engage in similar partnerships. Last month, Penn Engineering signed a MOU with Plaksha University in Mohali, India with the goal of promoting international research collaboration.
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