All our medicine students undertake an 8 week elective project during their final year.
It is an opportunity for our students to be completely independent in deciding where in the world they would like to go to study any aspect of medicine of particular interest. The possibilities are bounded only by the extent of one’s imagination and initiative.
Over the last few years students have undertaken such varied projects as
- Reviewing experiences of onboard surgeons with the coastguard in Alaska
- Teaching children about malaria in Tanzania
- Reviewing pain management on a Mercy Ship in Guinea
- Treatment of mountain biking injuries in New Zealand
- Reviewing fertility treatment in Barbados
Aberdeen is one of the few UK universities that require their students to do a project whilst on their elective, but this often gives the student an opportunity to get a publication or presentation based on their project which always looks good on the CV.
Students are given access to an elective website which gives them guidelines on how to plan their elective and useful contacts both here in Aberdeen and overseas (you can have a sneak peak here). A dedicated team of elective advisors are also available to help guide students through the process.