Global focus for online masters courses
Edinburgh has won £600,000 of funding to enable 35 students from low-income countries to study for a part-time, online masters qualification.
Applicants to the Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships programme - funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) - will come from regions around the world, including Asia, Africa and the Caribbean.
Successful applicants will choose from a range of courses, under four headings - One Health, One Medicine; Global Health Innovation; Surgical Sciences; and Carbon Management.
Students will benefit from the University’s Global Academy network – a unique cross disciplinary approach to learning that brings together experts from a variety disciplines.
The courses are structured to embed many of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which aim to address key global challenges,by 2030. These include ending hunger and poverty, providing clean water and sanitation, and tackling climate change.
Students become part of the Edinburgh academic community while remaining in their home countries.
Improving health
Identifying and tackling ill health - and the reasons for it - are a key part of five programmes offered under the heading of Global Health Innovation.
The strategy is not simply to treat the symptoms of disease, but also examine why communities face chronic poor health. Edinburgh’s approach brings together doctors, teachers, engineers, financiers.
These scholarships are life-changing. Brilliant students who would not otherwise have the means to study at this level will now have the opportunity to gain new skills and knowledge to improve health in their communities.
Training surgeons
Ten of the scholarships will train surgeons. The programme has seen more than 1,000 medics from from than 70 countries gain an Edinburgh degree.
The impact of this online programme, established in 2007, has been considerable. Doctors have been able to acquire knowledge while delivering vital surgical care at home.
These scholarships will help us to train even more surgeons in their own environment, where these is a pressing need. By working with local people in countries such as Malawi, Zambia and Sudan, as well as in East Asia and Latin America, we can help provide solutions to urgent problems.
One Health, One Medicine
The One Health, One Medicine approach seeks to offer integrated solutions to challenges posed by the interdependency between humans, animals and their environment. The ever-closer relationship between human and animal health brings risks of disease.
Finding solutions to these emerging threats requires scholars to work in new, collaborative ways across biomedical sciences and veterinary medicine.
This approach enables students at Edinburgh to gain a comprehensive insight into global health challenges and to seek solutions.
The complex health challenges we face illustrate the need for our programmes. Students work with local communities and policy makers to develop novel solutions for the management of devastating endemic diseases, including avian flu, dengue, sleeping sickness and Ebola.
Tackling climate change
Funding is also available for applicants wishing to study for a masters in Carbon Management. The course provides a detailed understanding of climate science and economics in business, industry, government and non-governmental organisations.
A flexible approach allows students to devise study programmes tailored to their interests and career goals. Innovative teaching methods, including live role-play, provide a rich learning experience.
This course integrates the science, business, economics and policy of climate change, which is of critical relevance in many of the students’ home countries. The new students will join a thriving global network of more than 500 'Carbon Masters' working in more than 60 nations.
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