A comprehensive archive of public seminars is available online on the website of the International Institute for Society and Health of University College, London. The seminars cover a broad range of topics which Alma Mata members will find interesting and useful.

Topics have included:

Risk, Resilience and Social Integration
Conflict Medicine: A Neglected Challenge
Social Inequalities in Health - New Evidence and Policy Implications

Internships with WHO:

The World Health Organization (WHO) offers a limited number of unpaid internship opportunities to under-graduate or post-graduate university students that are enrolled in medically-related programmes. I applied for one of these and after 10 months of persistence was finally fortunate enough to be awarded such an internship.

My Internship at SEARO:

I spent my elective period undertaking the internship at the WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO). The WHO is part of the United Nations and acts as the foremost political authority on global health for its 192 Member States. SEARO oversees the state of health for the 11 Member States that constitute this politically defined region: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, PDR Korea, Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, & Timor Leste. The office itself is situated in New Delhi, India.

Sudden changes in UK immigration law, already in the news for their impact on overseas doctors, have also forced hundreds of students at UK medical schools to reevaluate their career plans. With immediate effect from April 3rd 2006 all doctors who are not residents of EEA countries have only been able to apply for training posts if their potential employer can prove that there are no EEA doctors available for that post. Importantly, this ruling also affects doctors from overseas who graduated from one of the UK's 31 medical schools and completed the 2 year foundation programme.

Thinking about a career in the humanitarian sector but don't know where to start? Have all the positions you've seen needed a minimum of 10 years' overseas experience? Finding your first assignment overseas can be a daunting experience. RedR-IHE's Communications and Membership Officer, Karen Wagstaff has created this up-to-the-minute resource guide - and gives you some basic tips to help you get a head start.

To bring together the many facets of public health the Faculty has developed a series of specialist interest ‘Network Groups’. These groups are web-based discussion groups designed to facilitate:
- networking between individuals (in the UK and worldwide) who share a common interest in a particular area of public health;
- the exchange of ideas, knowledge and best practice in the field of public health and within a special interest;
- communication between Network Group members and the Faculty (and vice versa).

Membership is free and open to all individuals (subject to approval) – not just Faculty members.

This page links to sites that provide training materials in Global Health-related areas, aimed particularly at health professionals and students in the developing world.

As part of its development of training and service programs, the Division of International Health develops training materials and adapts suitable materials from other Centers for Disease Control & Prevention sources.