Department of - Instituut voor Tropische Geneeskunde

Many ITM staff members contribute as guest lecturers to
a wide range of courses in Belgium, Europe and worldwide.
We started a new and exciting collaboration with
the Norwegian NCT Centre for Telemedicine in Tromsø,
Norway, initiated joint training of Master in International
Health (MIH) students with the Swiss Tropical Institute
Basel and provided tutoring to students in a HIV
blended learning course from InWent (Internationale
Weiterbildung und Entwicklung, Germany).
Doctoral training and research at the ITM
Doctoral fellows make up a rapidly growing and ever
more important group of the ITM’s students’ body. On 31
December 2007, 87 PhD students were enlisted which
included academic and research assistants employed
by the ITM, Belgian and European fellows funded or
employed by research funding agencies or universities,
and PhD bursaries from developing countries supported
by the DGDC or other development agencies. The
latter category usually follows a “sandwich” track with
alternating stays at the ITM and in the home country. The
sandwich fellowships including sustenance, travel and a
bench fee for a period of four years, and can be awarded
as part of an institutional collaboration programme or to
selected graduates from the ITM’s master programmes.
When the sun shines, the ITM’s historical art deco garden becomes a
favourite place for group work.
In 2007 the latter type of “individual” PhD scholarships,
based on merit and competitive project proposals, were
awarded to scientists from Ivory Coast, Uganda and
Zimbabwe.
The doctorates are usually awarded by a Belgian
university, with whom the ITM has concluded
agreements to this end. In 2007, 14 doctoral students
supervised by the ITM successfully defended their thesis,
among which 8 from developing countries. Nine of these
PhD’s were defended at a Belgian and 5 at a foreign
university.
One of the nice things about studying in Antwerp is the chocolate.
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