Edward Boyle Memorial Trust Medical Elective Bursaries 2010/2011

The Edward Boyle Memorial Trust is offering Medical Elective Bursaries for senior medical students from United Kingdom medical faculties/schools, to assist them to spend their elective period in a developing country within the Commonwealth.

Value and tenure: Edward Boyle Bursaries have a maximum value of £500; they are offered with tenure at any time between 1 May 2010 and 31 May 2011. Their purpose is to enable medical students in Britain to gain, during their elective period, practical experience in developing Commonwealth countries (particularly those that are Least Developed or Specially Disadvantaged) and, by doing so, to help understaffed hospitals in those countries. The Bursaries are intended to cover part of the student's travel, subsistence and local costs, and payment will be made directly to the students selected.

Method of Application: Application forms will be available from your Medical Dean / Elective Co-ordinator from the end of October 2009.  Applications must be submitted in the first instance to the Medical Dean of your medical school and NOT to the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU).  After considering applications, each Medical Dean may recommend not more than one candidate to the ACU office.

Closing Date: Please see the Medical Dean who will set the University internal deadline. Official closing date for receipt of applications from the Medical Dean to the ACU is 31 January 2010. The decisions of the ACU's selection committee will be announced in April 2010.

History: Edward Boyle Medical Elective Bursaries are funded from an endowment left to the Association of Commonwealth Universities from the Edward Boyle Memorial Trust, founded in memory of Sir Edward Charles Gurney Boyle (1923-1981), so that United Kingdom medical scholars would benefit from elective periods in developing commonwealth countries.

Sir Edward Boyle (born 1923) entered Parliament in 1950 as member for Handsworth, Birmingham, which he represented for twenty years. During that period, he held several Government posts, including that of Minister of Education (1962-64) in the Macmillan administration. In 1969 he announced his intentions not to seek re-election to Parliament and accepted the invitation to become Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leeds.

He was awarded a life peerage with the title Baron Boyle of Handsworth in 1970 and remained as Vice-Chancellor at Leeds from 1970 until his death in September 1981. He immersed himself in the life of the University and took a keen interest in many events in the city of Leeds, most notably being Chairman of the Jury of the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition. He also continued to hold office at national level, including the Chair of the Top Salaries Review Body (from 1971), and of the Committee of Vice-Chancellors and Principals (1977-79).

When Lord Boyle died in September 1981, at the early age of 58, many tributes were paid to his achievements, and to his outstanding and endearing personal qualities and it was thought fitting to set up a Trust in his memory. The Trust was launched at a gathering held in St. James's Palace by kind permission of her Royal Highness The Duchess of Kent who also consented to act as Patron.

The aims of the Trust are broad, being the advancement of education, learning and music, purposes which formed the central theme of Lord Boyle's life. In keeping with these aims the Trustees established research scholarships to enable students of high academic achievement from abroad to work in British Universities; a valuable award to assist young people of exceptional musical talent to attain professional status; organ and choral bursaries; and bursaries to help medical students who intend to spend their elective in a developing country. The above awards attracted exceptionally good candidates until 1995, when the Edward Boyle Memorial Trust was wound-up. At that time the Trust left an endowment to the ACU so that future medical scholars would benefit from elective periods in developing commonwealth countries.