Developing innovative education and training in global health is essential in order to better prepare the next generation of clinicians, researchers, policymakers and advocates as leaders and pioneers in the field of health.

The teaching recognises that in an increasingly complex and interconnected world, graduates will have to work ever more closely with colleagues from a diverse range of fields and across geographic, cultural and linguistic barriers.

The challenge is to draw together a cohesive and multidisciplinary global health teaching faculty that is capable of supporting a range of teaching programmes for students from all relevant disciplines.

Over the last two years, considerable progress has been made in developing undergraduate global health teaching for medical students, which started with a range of global health special study courses and now includes a new intercalated BSc. The next step will be to expand the reach of this teaching across the University, which should include core teaching, optional modules open to a wide range of students, a portfolio of MSc courses and support for PhD programmes.

Case Study - Intercalated BSc in Global Health
As student interest in global health has increased over the last decade, there has been mounting demand for universities to develop intercalated degree programmes in global health for medical and dental students.

A group of academics and clinicians, led by Mr Andy Leather and Prof John Rees, have been working closely with the student group Medsin over the last two years to develop such a programme at King’s College London. The BSc was launched in September 2010, with eighteen students in the first cohort. The purpose of the Intercalated BSc is to
enable students to understand global health within the larger political, social, cultural and economic context.

The course covers subjects relevant to improving health and health care in resource-poor countries, whilst emphasising the significance of these topics to future practitioners in the UK. This feature is especially important for King’s Health Partners,
which serves, within seven south east London boroughs, a community of two million, one of the UK’s most diverse in terms of ethnicity, education, wealth and ultimately health outcomes.

Developing a teaching faculty equipped to teach such a wide range of disciplines and skills has required extensive collaboration across King’s Health Partners (see diagram below). This faculty brings together a critical mass of global health education experience and activity that has the capacity to support global health teaching across the University.