CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP (IMPRESS)
COLLEGE OF MEDICINE
BACKGROUND
The College of Medicine (CoM) was established in 1991 as a constituent college of the University of Malawi. Its mission is “to be an academic centre of excellence in the training of doctors and other health professionals in clinical service and medical research, responsive to the health needs of Malawi and its neighbours within the Southern African region”. Through postgraduate training, CoM expects to develop and mentor clinicians, public health practitioners and social scientists who will become leaders and game-changers in their areas of speciality to transform the health sector in Malawi and globally.
The CoM, in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) has received funding from the National Institute of Health Research in the United Kingdom to implement a project entitled “Innovative Management PRactices to Enhance hoSpital quality and Save lives in Malawi (IMPRESS)” which aims at identifying optimal health facility management practices to improve care of sick newborn babies. The project will be implemented in 36 health facilities in Malawi from January 2021 to September 2024.
Doctoral Fellowship
TheIMPRESS Project will utilize part of its funding to support two doctoral (PhD) fellowships for Malawian citizens for a period of 3 years. The doctoral fellowship will enable an aspiring Malawian researcher to acquire expertise and hands-on experience in health systems research and implementation science related to the topics of enhancing health facility management practices and quality of care in Malawian hospitals. Specifically, the fellowship will support the successful applicant in developing a PhD proposal as part of the IMPRESS project, for admission as a doctoral student at LSHTM, UK (the award is contingent on LSHTM admission being obtained).
The IMPRESS PhD fellow will be employed as a Research Associate at College of Medicine for the period of the 3 year PhD programme, subject to satisfactory performance at annual review. The fellow will be primarily based in Malawi, but will also spend periods in London for PhD-related activities. The PhD studentship will be jointly supervised by academic staff from the College of Medicine and LSHTM’s Department of Global Health and Development.
Application eligibility criteria:
- Master’s degree in a health or social science-related field OR a Medical Degree
- Bachelor’s degree with at least a credit score or upper second-class
- At least 2-years work or volunteer experience in a relevant health or social science-related field after obtaining a bachelor’s degree
- Strong interest and aptitude for health systems research, and ideally some evidence of research outputs (e.g. papers, conference presentations)
- Excellent aptitude for quantitative and / or qualitative data analysis.
- Excellent oral and written communication skills (e.g. in drafting of reports or manuscripts) in English and Chichewa.
Application Requirements;
Interested applicants are required to submit the following documents:
- An application cover letter
- An updated curriculum vitae (including details of relevant work or volunteer experience)
- Certified copies of academic transcripts or degree
- A concept note for a PhD proposal on a topic relevant to the IMPRESS project and the candidate’s skills and interests (refer to the IMPRESS webpage for more information about the project www.lshtm.ac.uk/research/centres-projects-groups/impress). The concept note should be two pages in length and include the following headings: Title, Background & Rationale, Objectives, Methods, Policy impact. References can be presented on an additional third page.
Incomplete applications with missing documents will automatically be considered as ineligible and will not be shortlisted.
Submission Requirements
Applications must be submitted as a single PDF document by email to the College of Medicine Academic Registrar-Academics (aracademic@medcol.mw) copied to the IMPRESS Project Investigators; Prof Victor Mwapasa (vmwapasa@medcol.mw) and Dr Catherine Goodman (Catherine.Goodman@lshtm.ac.uk). The deadline for receiving applications will be on 06 August 2021 at 23:59 hrs.