UCT the place to be for study-abroad students

Because of its world-class resources, its great vision and its place as a leading university, UCT is a destination of choice for many international institutions.

Welcome: Student Christina Li is among students from Johns Hopkins University who are on their six-week study visit to UCT.	Table Talk: Anna Grimsrud of UCT's Centre of Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Research runs a session with visiting Johns Hopkins students.

So says Lisa Folda, who is leading a group of students from the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) in the US on their six-week study visit to UCT this winter.

The 10 undergraduate students are taking part in the JHU's Public Health Studies Programme Abroad, a partnership between JHU and UCT, which is being hosted by the Centre for Higher Education Development's Centre for Open Learning for the second consecutive year.

Folda says UCT was chosen for feasibility reasons, to re-enforce strategic partnerships between the two institutions, and because of its strong appeal to students.

The programme, which ends on 22 July, is using HIV/AIDS as the lens through which to view public health issues such as political, cultural, and behavioural responses to the disease.

This gives students a first-hand understanding of the challenges of health care delivery and health promotion in an under-resourced environment.

"Any student who studies abroad is better-rounded because they've got perspectives of another culture, another living environment and another learning style," explains Folda.

The students spend two days in a class taught by UCT's Anna Grimsrud, a PhD candidate in epidemiology, and three days engaged in community-based learning at five non-governmental organisations around Cape Town.