Global Health in South Africa: Study Abroad and Internships

Study abroad and intern in South Africa with GEI's full-time in-country team. A 4-week practicum plus a career-aligned internship, with U.S. academic credit through Hamline University, GEI's school of record.

Track: Global Health
Destination: South Africa
Programs: Short-Term, Internship
Dates: January, Summer
Credit: 4 to 8 U.S. credit hours through Hamline University, GEI's school of record
Eligibility: Any field and level of study

The Global Health track explores how health systems, communities, and institutions respond to complex health challenges. In South Africa, students examine health systems, disease burden, prevention, and equitable access to care while learning alongside local professionals and community partners. The track combines interdisciplinary coursework with experiential, community-engaged learning, and it is open to students at any level of study.

The programs emphasize applied, field-based learning rather than classroom instruction. Students learn through site visits, community-based activities, collaborative projects, and guided reflection. Field engagement provides insight into how health systems operate at community, institutional, and policy levels.

Spend your days inside South Africa's health system, from Cape Town’s teaching hospitals to township clinics and community health workers, alongside the people who run them
Join one of GEI's international development initiatives in South Africa and, with South African students on your team, see your cohort's project through to completion
Or work full time with a South African health organization in a placement matched to your field, level, and skills
Learn from the country that runs the largest HIV treatment program in the world, and see how public and private health care meet in one system
South Africa beyond the field: Cape Town's markets and mountain with your cohort, a safari in Kruger National Park or a visit to Robben Island where your program includes them, and free weekends to explore on your own

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Short-term program

3 or 4 weeks, January or Summer, 4 credits

Summer Program

8 weeks, June and July, 8 credits

SEMESTER Program

15 weeks, Fall or Spring, 16 credits

INTERNSHIP Program

4, 6, or 8 weeks, January or Summer, 4+ credits

A structured field course, taught in the field: six themed modules (burden of disease, health systems, infectious and chronic disease, mental health, maternal and child health, migration), a community-engaged learning project with a module host organization, and assignments that build the competencies of global change leaders.

A cohort working inside a GEI flagship initiative, not a placement. Your cohort joins one of GEI's international development initiatives in South Africa, works in one interdisciplinary team with South African student peers, and sees its project through to completion. The initiative continues after you leave. Current initiatives in South Africa: School Water Systems, Mentally Fit Schools

isiXhosa, three to four classes a week with a local language school, plus field activities from market visits to a cooking lesson with a host family. Runs alongside the Independent Study Project.

Four kickstart days on methods and ethics, then your own project on a question that matters to a local organization, supervised by a local faculty member. A weekly Capstone Seminar with your cohort, a research paper, and a final presentation of your project and your Capstone portfolio. In the Global Health track, projects work at the system, service, or community level.

Your Capstone runs through the whole program. You collect the work that shows your development across your courses, from field assignments to project findings, into a digital portfolio and present it at the end of the program. The portfolio is a requirement for the certificate.

A supervised internship with a host organization in one of the Global Health fields, from medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health to public health. You are matched to a host by your level of study, skills, and preferred field, with a placement description agreed before you arrive. The course opens with four orientation days and adds three professional development site visits across South Africa's health system, three cultural activities, a weekly meeting with your supervisor, a reflective journal, and a placement report. Clinical placements are standalone and do not carry academic credit.

There are no prerequisites for the study abroad programs. Students can be enrolled in any major or minor and at any level of university study. GEI tries to place students in cohorts with similar levels of study, which is not always possible. The Internship Program is generally open to sophomores, juniors, seniors, and graduate students who have a theoretical foundation in their field, or by consent of the faculty sponsor. Clinical placements are for students in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and allied health; interns observe and assist within the host's rules and their own scope of practice.

GEI programs follow U.S. academic culture and standards. The pace is accelerated, the workload demanding, and the U.S. grading scale of A to F applies. What you hand in depends on your courses.

Global Field Engagement: 6 module assignments in small groups, active participation in the community-engaged learning project, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a project report.
Global Practicum: Active participation in the initiative, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a project report.
Summer Program: In addition, a Capstone portfolio presented at the end of the program.
Semester Program: In addition, the Language Intensive Course assessments, and in the Independent Study Project a research paper and a final presentation of your project and your Capstone portfolio.
Internship Program: A minimum of 40 hours a week at your host organization, a weekly meeting with your supervisor, a weekly reflective journal, blog, or vlog, and a placement report with two or three work products. Students in standalone clinical placements complete the journal and report, and receive feedback but no grade.

Each study abroad course carries 180 contact hours and 4 U.S. credit hours (about 8 ECTS): 4 credits for the Short-Term Program, 8 for the Summer Program, and 16 for the Semester Program. The Internship Program carries 4 or more U.S. credit hours depending on its length; clinical placements are standalone and carry no credit. Credit is awarded through Hamline University, GEI's school of record, which issues the transcript, unless you receive credit via your home institution. The Summer Program leads to the Certificate in Global Health and the Semester Program to the Certificate in Global Engagement with a concentration in Global Health. Check with your academic advisor how many credits your degree program accepts.

All courses are taught in English. In the Semester Program you also study isiXhosa in the Language Intensive Course.

Three decades after its first democratic election, South Africa is the economic powerhouse of the continent and one of its most complex societies, a place that is developed and developing at once and still writing its own multicultural identity. Its health system reflects that: world-class hospitals beside overstretched clinics, and a public program that has put more people on HIV treatment than any other country on earth.

Fieldwork in South Africa's health system
Students engage directly with South African health care: hospitals, community clinics, NGOs, and health programs working in HIV, maternal and child health, nutrition, and mental health, seeing how policy becomes practice.

A practicum inside a real development initiative
In the Global Practicum, your cohort joins one of GEI's international development initiatives in South Africa, works in one team with South African students, and sees its project through to completion. The initiative continues after you leave.

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Housing is included in the program fee for the full length of your program. GEI South Africa offers different options, subject to availability:

Guesthouses: Shared double rooms, shared bathroom, no kitchen; breakfast is usually provided
Homestays: Typically single rooms, shared bathroom, access to a kitchen and living room; host families usually provide breakfast and dinner
Serviced apartments: Single or shared double rooms, shared bathroom, kitchen and living room
University residence halls at GEI's partner universities: Shared double rooms, shared bathroom, no kitchen

Students in guesthouses, apartments, and residence halls cover their own meals outside course meals. More in the blog post: Accommodation – What to expect.

Included in your program fees

Tuition
Housing for the full length of your program
Pre-departure advising and orientation
Airport meet and greet on arrival
GEI's full-time in-country team and 24/7 emergency support throughout
Course-related activities, site visits, and excursions, including transportation, guiding, and selected meals
Cultural activities and optional events
Health insurance for the program dates

Not included in your program fees

International airfare and travel to and from Cape Town airport
Visas and immunizations
Meals other than those included in course activities
Personal expenses and items of a personal nature
Medical costs beyond what the health insurance covers
Weekend travel and other discretionary spending

SOUTH AFRICA

STAFF

GEI's full-time team in Cape Town hosts and supervises every cohort.

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