CALL FOR APPLICATIONS: MASTERS 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.
Masters Fellowship
TheIMPRESS Project will utilize part of its funding to support a masters (MPH) fellowship for a Malawian citizen for a period of 2 years. The masters fellowship will enable an aspiring Malawian researcher to acquire both public health training and hands-on experience in health systems research and implementation science.
The IMPRESS Masters fellow will be employed as a Research Associate at College of Medicine for a period of 2 years, subject to satisfactory performance at annual review, gaining practical research experience through project activities. They will concurrently register for a 2 year part-time MSc in Public Health at LSHTM by distance learning, starting Oct 2021. See LSHTM website for further information www.lshtm.ac.uk/study/courses/masters-degrees/public-health-online (the award is contingent on LSHTM admission being obtained). The fellow will be primarily based in Malawi, but may also attend up to two of the MSc modules in person in London. The MSc will include a Project in year 2, which will be conducted on a topic relevant to IMPRESS, jointly supervised by academic staff from the College of Medicine and LSHTM’s Department of Global Health and Development.
Application eligibility criteria:
- Bachelor’s degree with at least a credit score or upper second-class OR a Medical Degree
- At least 1-year’s 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 personal statement outlining the applicant’s career goals and aspirations, and how this masters fellowship would support these.
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 23 July 2021 at 23:59 hrs.