Your personal
development:
extracurricular
learning opportunities
Initiatives, including
internships and special
funds, enable students
to enhance their
learning experience,
build their confidence,
improve their
employability and
broaden their horizons.
The Vice-Chancellor’s International Travel
Fund
The Vice-Chancellor’s International Travel
Fund was set up in 2010 with the sole aim
of broadening our students’ horizons by
providing the means to travel abroad to
embrace new cultures and experiences.
These overseas projects enrich students’
academic experience, broaden their
outlook on the world and help them to
make a real contribution to their field or to
serving society’s needs.
This financial support enabled Debra
Rickett, an occupational therapy student,
to take up a placement in Canada at the
Veterans’ Care Programme at Parkwood
Hospital in London, Ontario. Debra
worked with the residents, both men and
women, who were veterans of the Second
World War and Korean War.
Debra said: “I gained valuable experience
working with people in an outpatient
mental health setting in Victoria Hospital. I
found this to be very beneficial to my
learning, particularly the time I spent with
the therapeutic recreation specialists,
behaviour analyst and music therapist.”
Neil McLeod, a first year film and media
student, applied to the Vice-Chancellor’s
International Travel Fund to help finance
his travel and living costs as part of the
Study China Programme.
His successful application to the Fund
allowed him to study Chinese history and
culture, as well as learn Mandarin in
Shanghai last summer.
Neil said: “This was a huge opportunity
and I was extremely excited to be a part
of it. I’m honoured to have received an
award from the Vice-Chancellor’s Fund.
Without it, I would have not been able to
fund my time with the Study China
Programme.”
Other recipients of awards included Niamh
Allum, an occupational therapy student,
who also completed an eight-week
placement in an outpatient mental health
setting in Victoria Hospital, Ontario,
Canada. Bernadette Dooley, MSc
Gastronomy student, used the award to
visit Ostersund, Sweden, to collect data to
investigate the Swedish National Centre
for Small Scale Artisan Food Processing
(Eldrimmer). Grace Farhat, a PhD Public
Health Nutrition student, received the
Vice-Chancellor’s International Travel
20
Fund to attend the Experimental Biology
Meeting in San Diego, USA.
For more information on the Vice-
Chancellor’s International Travel Fund, visit
our website at www.qmu.ac.uk/
alumni-and-friends/funding-opportunities-
for-current-students
The Saltire Scholar Internship
Programme
The Saltire Foundation provides paid
internships in international businesses to
Scotland’s most talented students – an
opportunity to which they may not
otherwise have access.
Katie Graves-Morris, an applied
pharmacology student completed a
communications internship with global
healthcare company, GlaxoSmithKline
(GSK), thanks to Entrepreneurial
Scotland’s Saltire Scholar Internship
Programme.
Katie spent nine weeks as part of the
communications team at GSK in
Montrose, Angus, where she worked on
improving graduate recruitment and
retainment. She then spent the final week
of her internship at the GSK headquarters
in London as part of the company’s
Leadership Week.