New “Epidemiology and Biostatistics” master’s degree program for students in Mwanza and Würzburg

A joint cooperation on the part of the University of Würzburg and the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences in Mwanza, Tanzania
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Some students of the bilateral Master's program “Epidemiology and Biostatistics”.
(© Stella Mugassa)

Close collaboration has existed for years between the Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg (JMU) and the Catholic University of Health and Allied Sciences (CUHAS) in Mwanza, Tanzania. The Else Kröner Center Würzburg-Mwanza (EKC) was founded in the summer of 2020 with the support of Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung. This enabled the partnership between the universities and university hospitals at their two locations, as well as with DAHW, a German relief organization for leprosy and tuberculosis, and the medmissio – Institute for Global Health to be elevated to a new level. 

The partners have now developed a joint curriculum for the master’s degree program entitled “Epidemiology and Biostatistics”. CUHAS is currently one of three universities throughout Tanzania that offers an advanced, in-depth course of studies in this important specialized field.

In Mwanza, the degree program already got off to a start in the fall of 2023. Eleven students have enrolled until now. The program aids specialized health experts in carrying out studies on the effectiveness of healthcare measures, in applying the principles of epidemiology to reporting on diseases, and in creating forecasting models based on these factors.

The courses are conducted for the most part by teaching staff from CUHAS. In the summer semester of 2024 part of these courses are going to be taken over by JMU: at this stage the program referred to is affiliated with the master’s degree program in “Translational Medicine” for medical students. In the coming months staff from the Institute for Clinical Epidemiology and Biometry will be holding hybrid lectures in which both Tanzanian students and students from Würzburg will take part online.

The EKC has made an improvement of the digital equipment in the CUHAS seminar room possible beforehand to enable a smoothly running workflow for the teaching staff and the students from Tanzania. Intended is that the first students from Mwanza complete their Master of Science degree in Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the fall of 2025. 

Here you can find further information about the Else Kröner Center for Advanced Medical & Medical Humanitarian Studies Würzburg – Mwanza, Tanzania.