Khaled Khalifa, Islamic Relief’s Country Director in Malaysia and Sphere’s focal point in the country has signed a contract with Cyberjaya University, to teach a Sphere oriented disaster management course to the students of its College of Medical Sciences. The course will cover the following: introduction to Sphere, standards common to all sectors, water, sanitation and hygiene promotion, food aid, food security and nutrition, shelter, settlement and non food items. This agreement is a breakthrough in promoting Sphere to academic institutions in Asia. For the first time medical students will study sphere as part of their academic curricula and will have marks based on their understanding of disaster management concepts. It is possible that other institutions follow suite, a matter that will contribute to creating better qualified aid workers in the future.