Could you please tell me more about your experience? Are you referring to only the Master, or the diploma also.
I found the diploma generally ok. I was referring specifically to the Masters (note this is the Master of Clinical Tropical Medicine [M.C.T.M]).
My most distinct memory of the program is a weekly student presentation [“critical appraisal”] (this may have been the ‘seminar’ you mentioned). On one afternoon each week, students took turns to give a presentation on a journal article of their choosing, together with their ‘critical appraisal’ of the article. These sessions were attended by teaching staff. When all students finished their turn (after about 2-3 months), another round of presentations began (this time based on a topic review of students’ choice) which ran until the program ended.
At each of these sessions, after each critical appraisal presentation, other students would take turns to say something about the article. This was followed by each staff member saying something about the article.
There was no actual acknowledgement of the student;'s presentation and critique, just disparate comments. Staff seemed to feel they had to say something over and beyond students’ contributions, to demonstrate some higher level of understanding/insight, and could not bring themselves to simply agree with anyone. There were occasions when staff just repeated what the presenter had said as though it was an original contribution, or wrapped up the same idea in a different format.
It was clear from their comments & questions to the presenter that some staff had not read the article before the session (and were doing so along the way). Each weekly session was supposed to last 3 hours, but the room would often start emptying progressively long before then, often leaving only the students and moderator at the end.
It would appear to be a pretty basic consideration for the course coordinator to coordinate and approve each student's article and topic choices at the beginning of the year and then place all these choices in some file in a common drive, so that everyone knew who was doing what and there would be no overlap between students, even if one wanted to change one's topic later on. One could then at least prepare one’s presentation ahead of time, put the silly thing aside and focus on other things. But this was not the case- there was absolutely no inclination on the part of the course directors to do so, even when this suggestion was raised. So you had to wait for others to finish their turn before being able to begin your own preparation. This would not have mattered to those at the front of the queue, but became a source of frustration for those nearer the end. It was all very lackadaisical and happy-go-lucky. There was a clear sense that these ‘seminars’ were very low priority for staff, and they were simply being used to fulfill credit requirements, without entailing too much staff effort.
The reason why I am describing this in a bit of detail is that while I found these weekly “seminars” to be a waste of time and energy, they nonetheless become the focal point of the program-either it was your turn to give a presentation, or you were waiting for your turn, or you had to prepare to make some comment. The program metamorphosed from a ‘Master of Tropical Medicine’ into a ‘Master of Critical Appraisal’.
Staff are knowledgeable in their fields- no issues regarding this. The other taught components were not particularly noteworthy, but were somewhat random (both with respect to scheduling and content). The program is probably low priority for the staff, and seems to have been designed to keep students occupied and fulfill university credit requirements while minimizing staff responsibilities and workload. One is left with a little sense of having been cheated of one's time and resources,.
There was stress but it was the wrong type of stress. The stress came from anticipating and giving unnecessary presentations that nobody was interested in, and overall a lack of focus,. There was no sense of a common purpose among students or moving forward together as a cohort. Some students seemed more interested in socializing and bonding with academic staff.
I would suggest talking to others who attended the program if possible- maybe they will have a different perspective.
Overall, I would say that if you just want a different experience (maybe you just want a study-cum-vacation and an excuse to do some travelling while picking up a degree) and are not too fussed about the actual learning, then this option is probably ok.
But if you are seriously into tropical medicine, and it is part of your career plans, you might want to look at other options.
Hope this helps and best of luck!
