Seychelles explores cooperation in health with Croatia |09 July 2021

Minister Radegonde in one of his talks during a business lunch

Seychellois students wishing to study medicine or hospital administration could in the near future enroll on relevant courses at the prestigious Zagreb University in Croatia.

This follows talks the Minister for Foreign Affairs & Tourism Sylvestre Radegonde had with the Croatian Minister for Foreign and European Affairs and the Vice-Dean of the School of Medicine of the University of Zagreb.

During business lunches Minister Radegonde had earlier this week with Minister Gordan Grlic Radman and Prof. Davor Jezek, Vice-Dean for International Relations and Head of Medical Studies in English at the School of Medicine, they all agreed that Zagreb University could be the delivery mechanism of greater bilateral cooperation between Seychelles and Croatia in the health sector.

In their meeting on Tuesday July 5, Minister Radegonde and Prof. Jezek agreed that the School of Medicine of the University of Zagreb offered ideal conditions for future Seychellois health practitioners. The school runs programme in English which dispense the students of learning a new language and has a small annual intake of 50 students which makes for better interactions between the students and their lecturers. Also tuition fees are very competitive and the School of Medicine is linked to a network of 14 general and specialised hospitals throughout Zagreb. The University of Zagreb also has a very good School of Public Health that could provide the right training for the two future hospital administrators needed to run the two main public hospitals in Seychelles.

However, as the University of Zagreb does not provide scholarships, training for Seychellois doctors, nurses and hospital administrators can only be done through scholarships provided by the government of Croatia within the framework of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between itself and the government of Seychelles. This MoU was one of the subjects of discussion that Minister Radegonde and Minister Grlic Radman had during their working lunch the following day.   

Press release from the department of Foreign Affairs