24 October 2015 – The signing ceremony for a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Hiroshima University (HU) and the International Medical University (IMU) took place at the Ana Crowne Plaza Hotel in Hiroshima. The MoU was signed by YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Abu Bakar Suleiman, President of IMU witnessed by the Dean of School of Dentistry, Prof Toh Chooi Gait and Dr Mitsuo Ochi, President of Hiroshima University witnessed by Dean of Faculty of Dentistry Dr Motoyuki Sugai. The memorandum calls for collaboration in research, staff and student mobility between the two universities. Discussion on collaboration was first initiated by Prof Takashi Takata when he was Dean of the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Hiroshima with Prof Toh Chooi Gait. 
YBhg Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Abu Bakar in his address expressed that the collaboration, besides having joint research, can extend to student exchange. IMU students will benefit from visiting Hiroshima University for research and teaching as the Faculty of Dentistry, HU has established dual language classes. On the other hand, HU students will also benefit by having clinical experience in patient treatment when they visit IMU. He added that besides interaction between the dental schools, he hoped that the collaboration will extend to the medical and other health science schools. Dr Mitsuo Ochi affirmed that it will certainly be encouraged and supported. In fact he added that as an orthopaedic surgeon, he had visited the University of Malaya and operated on a patient there successfully in recent years. Dr Mitsuo Ochi informed that Hiroshima University has a mission to collaborate internationally and promoting peace in the world. 
The signing ceremony coincides with 50th Anniversary Commemoration Celebration of the Faculty of Dentistry, HU and the 6th Hiroshima Conference on Education and Science in Dentistry that was held from 23-25 October 2015. During the conference, our final year dental student Tan Wei Hong presented his research paper on “Rugoscopy among the Malaysian Chinese Population: A Pedigree Analysis” orally in the session of “Young Investigators in Frontier Biodental Science”. He also had his poster displayed. Dean, Prof Toh Chooi Gait was invited to chair the session on “Challenges and Perspectives in Dental Education” with Prof Katsuyuki Kozai of HU. After the conference was over, there was a Dean’s Meeting organized with 29 deans and vice-deans from 29 dental schools from Brazil (2), Canada (1), Cambodia (1), China (2), Indonesia (5), Korea (4), Malaysia (2), Myanmar (2), Sri Lanka (1), Taiwan (2), Thailand (4), United Kingdom (1), Vietnam (1) and Japan (host) together with the Director of Hospital of Vietnam, Director of National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and Chair of Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases, Forsyth Institute USA. The meeting discussed about possible collaboration for student and staff exchange as well as research collaboration.
