Rate My Professor Mark Owusu

Dr. Mark Owusu serves as a Learning Adviser in the Student Academic Skills team at the Centre for Educational Design and Innovation (CEDI), part of the University of Otago's Academic Division in Dunedin, New Zealand. Holding a PhD in Health Sciences and an MPhil, he previously worked as a Teaching Fellow at the University of Otago, with affiliations to the Otago Medical School in Christchurch. In his current role, Owusu delivers workshops and one-on-one support for students, covering topics such as plagiarism and paraphrasing, English language skills, punctuation, presentations, and academic writing. He contributes to key initiatives including the Otago English Language Mentor Programme, peer learning and support programmes for first-year students, and specialized sessions for postgraduate students, particularly PhD candidates at the Christchurch campus. His efforts focus on enhancing student academic skills and providing learning support across the university's Dunedin and Christchurch campuses.

Owusu's research interests center on non-communicable disease (NCD) management, health education, and mental health stigma, with a particular emphasis on policy frameworks in low- and middle-income countries like Ghana. His publications address critical public health issues, including 'Hypertension and diabetes management: a policy perspective from Ghana' co-authored with Arindam Basu and Pauline Barnett, a 2019 article in the Journal of Health Organization and Management, 'Assessing the psycho-socioeconomic impact of COVID-19 on foreign students and their families,' 'Coping with the stigma of mental illness: An interpretive descriptive study of out-patients in a public mental health hospital in Ghana' (2024), 'Family Members' Perspectives on Mental Illness Stigma: A Community Study' (2025), 'From Policy to Practice: A Process Evaluation of Implementing Opt-Out HIV Testing in Antenatal Clinics Across Ghana' (2024), 'Tackling the non-communicable disease epidemic: a framework for policy action in low- and middle-income countries,' and 'Effective management of non-communicable diseases in Ghana: the case of hypertension and diabetes mellitus.' His Google Scholar profile indicates 329 citations, reflecting impact in health policy and stigma research. Owusu's work also explores psychosocial support services for students with disabilities and anti-Black racism in mental health equity.