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• What is Alma Mata?
• What makes us different?
• Membership
• How can I get involved?
• Thanks to...

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What is Alma Mata?

Alma Mata was launched in 2005 by a group of international health graduates and health professionals. International Health BSc courses for medical students have been running in the UK since 2001 and students, after finishing the course and returning to medicine, needed a network to keep in touch and keep up to date with global health issues.

Alma Mata is a network for all health professionals who are interested in global health issues. It seeks to help those, who are increasingly busy after graduating, to keep the interest and the work going. There are now over 600 members of the network across the globe and our UK conferences in Leeds in 2005 and Edinburgh 2006 were a forum for continuing training and discussion in global health.

Read the Student BMJ's 2007 interview with Alma Mata's founder Rebecca Hope

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What makes us different? We do not seek to be an 'active' organisation in campaigning or running global health projects. There already exist active organisations for students and health professionals, such as Medact and Medsin. We hope that Alma Mata will be a tool to facilitate change in global health by being a reliable, easily accessible source of information on latest global health news and events and a tool for communication, discussion and a forum for the sharing of research.

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Membership We offer:

• advice about careers and post-graduate opportunities,
• a members' forum for debate and communication, and
• Alma Mata News which compiles recent developments in global health and articles by members.

We also organise events which provide a meeting place and a focus on current global health issues.

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By popular demand: why Alma Mata? There may be one question still lurking in your mind: why Alma Mata? Our name is of course a glorious (or terrible) pun. Alma mater is Latin for the student’s former institution of learning, as befits an alumni organisation. In 1978, at Alma Ata, in the former Soviet Union, health advocates and world leaders met, under the auspices of the World Health Organisation, to work towards ‘health for all’ by the year 2000. The route to this was via strong primary and preventive health services across the world. We felt this name suited well the needs of a graduates network committed to global health.

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How do I get involved? The best way to support Alma Mata is by joining as a member which is absolutely free. We are a not-for-profit organisation run entirely by volunteers and we are always looking for people to get involved. We always welcome practical support from members, particularly contributions to our news pages, the news letter and events calendar. See our contact page to find out who to get in touch with.
How to contribute to the site

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Thanks to... The following organisations and individuals have helped with the development of Alma Mata or have supported our work to date.

International Health & Medical Education Centre, University College London   Institute of Health Sciences and Public Health Research, University of Leeds   British Medical Association (International) Medsin UK Medact UK Oxdocs

International Federation of Medical Student Associations. Deborah Cohen, The BMJ David McNamee, The Lancet

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