Choosing an elective overseas
All healthcare profession students currently in training in the East of England are eligible to undertake an ethical elective in a CGHP partnership. It’s a great opportunity to gain clinical experience in a specialism and organisation of your choice, with funding of up to £1000 available to help with the costs. By working in a low- or middle-income country you’ll also typically get a unique hands-on experience that isn’t available in the UK, helping you to gain broader self-directed clinical or research experience.
Where you could go
We have supported hundreds of East of England student electives on a range of topics and in a range of countries, including a family information project on childhood cancer with the Uganda Cancer Institute and a project to digitalise health data about TB in Botswana.
To get a feel for what it’s like, read about Mithylan Ganeshwaran’s visit to Uganda with the SCALE Critical Care partnership, or find out how Emma Johnson benefitted from the hands-on teaching and learning environment in Malawi. You can choose to undertake your elective in one of our long-running programmes, or in a health project that is being established. There are placements available in Kenya, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, India and Jordan.
Funding
You can apply for up to £1000 to help fund your elective, with the final amount awarded decided by CGHP. You’ll need to demonstrate a number of things in your application, including that you’ll be on elective placement for a minimum of four weeks; that there’ll be a benefit to you, the local population, and the partnership; and that the elective is approved, well organised and a supervisor has been agreed.
If you’re successful in undertaking an ethical elective with CGHP, we’ll expect you to:
- Actively participate in the partnership before your elective, including attending at least two monthly partnership meetings.
- Attend a pre-departure workshop in March: ‘Global Health at Work: Making it Safe, Effective and Ethical‘.
- Submit an activity report and a personal reflection about your elective within one month of your return.
In return you can expect us to:
- Award you a grant towards your elective of up £1000 (subject to meeting certain criteria).
- Match you with a partnership and allocate you a supervisor for your elective project.
How to apply
Complete and submit the Ethical Elective Expression of Interest form providing as much information as you can.
If you’re successful, you’ll be matched with a project and partnership by mid January. You’ll then have one month to complete your Student Bursary application. Funds are released to students in March and the electives take place between June – August.
With special thanks to The Thriplow Charitable Trust for generously supporting the Student Global Health Bursary Scheme in 2023 and 2024.