History’s Friday Occasions – The Proving Ground: Colombo Plan Fellowships and the Changing Landscape of Health Education in Canada, 1950-1968

History’s Friday Occasions – The Proving Ground: Colombo Plan Fellowships and the Changing Landscape of Health Education in Canada, 1950-1968

Categories: Lectures and Seminars | Intended for

Friday, September 14, 2018

12:30 PM - 2:00 PM | Add to calendar

433 Paterson Hall

1125 Colonel By Dr, Ottawa, ON

Contact Information

Dominique Marshall, 613-520-2828, history@carleton.ca

Registration

No registration required.

Cost

$0

About this Event

Host Organization: Department of History
More Information: Please click here for additional details.

The Proving Ground: Colombo Plan Fellowships and the Changing Landscape of Health Education in Canada, 1950-1968 by Jill Campbell- Miller (Post-Doctoral Fellow, Department of History).

In the late 1960s and 1970s, facing dire shortages of expertise in the context of a rapidly expanding public healthcare system, Canadian provinces began to turn to the Global South to recruit badly needed healthcare professionals. Though this was a novel strategy, the presence of healthcare professionals in the Canadian health system was not new. Beginning in 1951 and for the following two decades, hundreds of professionals from South and Southeast Asia travelled to Canada to study at universities and other educational institutions under the Colombo Plan, a Commonwealth economic development initiative. Called “trainees,” many of these students studied in healthcare related fields, particularly in medicine and nursing. As a result, the Colombo Plan created an influx of students and professionals from the Global South into Canadian university and medical institutions. The presence of these students fostered a sense of mission within Canadian institutions about the role of Canadian education in health and international development, even as provincial governments began to contribute to the “brain drain” of professionals from these very same countries.