Our Goal

Medics2Mongolia's mission is to improve access to medical education for English speaking medical students and Mongolian doctors and students.

The medical elective is a part of the medical curriculum which provides a unique opportunity for students to travel the world and experience medicine, and culture, as they never have before. We aim to help create amazing placement opportunities for students, but without the fees that other companies often charge. Using contacts we made during our own elective to Mongolia we want to make it easy for you, the student, to set up a unique placement free of placement fees, so you can have the trip of a lifetime and save money for the hardship of your final year, all while making a real difference and building your own clinical skills and teaching experience (audits can be arranged upon request).

You, the medical student, can help to improve the Mongolian healthcare system. Teaching the Mongolian medical doctors (and students- next generation) English allows them to access funding, conferences, education and jobs that require English as a language. We achieve this by supporting medical students and teach a curriculum based upon previous students/doctor feedback. This does take a considerable amount of effort, planning, motivation and creativity from the medical student but is extremely rewarding.

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How are we unique?

When planning an elective trip many students are drawn to elective companies who help organise placements, accommodation, meals, and sometimes trips. These are great to take the pressure off finding a supervisor and hospital if you have £1000′s to spare! We believe these companies are not only over priced but are also quite restrictive, not letting you plan your own time in hospital or deciding on where you want to stay and for how much; they take away part of the adventure making it more like a school trip.

There is another way. We are Medics2Mongolia and we provide electives in Mongolia. For free. We won’t hold your hand for the whole process, but we will support you as you create your own unique elective experience. 

What we do:

• Arrange your placement for free.
• Maintain a diverse network of connections for supervisors and accommodation, to give you more control over clinical experience and budget.
• Provide the opportunity to practice medicine in an exciting new environment and to teach English to students, junior and senior doctors.
• Facilitate flexible placements that give you the chance to make the most of travelling around this unique country. 

What we don't do:

• Provide free flights, transport, accommodation or living expenses.

We are a company run by British junior doctors and medical students.  We all carried out our own electives in Mongolia, and we really understand what makes an elective in this country special.

We are a non-for profit organisation; our philosophy is focused on education, not profit. None of our staff receive a salary and any money that we do make gets put straight back into our charitable projects. Please see our other project and get involved in that also Makeit2Medicine.

If this sounds like an elective you would like to know more about, and a project you would like to get behind, we look forward to hearing from you, either through out contact form or though an elective application.

What we are looking for: - am I suitable for a M2M medical elective?

We are looking for students who are happy for us to endeavour to facilitate a placement matching their specifications, but are not looking to have their hand-held throughout the process or the placement itself. Our students should be adaptable and comfortable taking the initiative, managing their own time if it should be required. We do not provide a regimented time-table for our students, we instead provide you with supervising doctors within your chosen specialist field to guide you, but the freedom to direct your own placement - attending emergency services, ward rounds, clinics, etc. as you see fit. You will all be members of a trusted profession and we trust you to define your own objectives & manage your time appropriately!

If you are flexible, resourceful, independent, looking for a challenge, or smitten with the spirit of adventure, then we have an elective for you!

Free Medical Elective

All our medical electives are are facilitated and provided completely free to all students.  We do not believe our students should have to pay for the opportunity to learn and hone their medical skills; instead, we ask all our students to engage in the Medical English Teaching Programme whilst on their placement.

We do ask that all students initially provide a refundable deposit of £100 upon confirmation of their placement - in order to secure their place with the project. Deposits are returnable in full upon confirmation of travel itinerary to Mongolia.

As much as we would like to provide placements for all students without limits, we do operate a finite service, with limits on the maximum number of students we can facilitate at one time. We believe it would be unfair to deny an enthusiastic student the opportunity to experience a placement in Mongolia because of a student who applied earlier, but drops out of the process without reasonable cause. The use of a deposit based system allows us to prevent this being the case.

We do not cover the individual costs per student surrounding each placement; each student is responsible for their own travel and living expenses.
These include (but are not exhaustive): outgoing & return travel, travel between placements (if choosing to visit multiple sites throughout Mongolia), accommodation, living expenses,  visas and other documentation.

What we provide

• We will help you to arrange your placement in Mongolia, taking part in our English Teaching Project
• We let you decide if you want this placement in urban or rural hospitals (or both) and how long you wish to spend at each (NB: our placements are designed to be 2 weeks or longer per hospital)
• We provide you with some preparation to provide English lessons to local doctors once in Mongolia
• We provide contacts for translators on the ground in Mongolia who can help you find accommodation
• We use our own experience to give you as much or little advice as you would like regarding your trip, from travel arrangements and accommodation to great places to see and things to do
• Advice on the Mongolian Rally or Trans-Siberian Express

What you provide

• Flexibility and adaptability - we won't hold your hand, and sometimes you will need to take the initiative as opportunities and hurdles arise. This also applies to the English teaching programme, where we will provide materials, but often you may need to adapt quickly to your students with wildly varying levels of English language skill. 
• Organisation - we will provide you with information on recommended accommodation, transport and advice on places to travel, but you will need to be able to arrange these yourself both logistically (with our support, if needed), and financially (with with we can't provide support).
• Confidence and common-sense - you will often be travelling to remote places, with a different culture and often very limited levels of English comprehension. While we carefully vet our placement providers to be safe, we can't control every variable of your travel, nor do we provide indemnity or travel insurance. You will need to be sensible and approach these placements as you would do any remote, foreign travel and keep yourself safe. This is especially important if you take part in the Mongolian Rally, however there are separate arrangements made, distinct to the elective period through our partner charities, if you choose to take part in this.  
• A sense of adventure - this is an elective where you get out what you put in. We don't hold your hand, and often you will have to make decisions and some arrangements (although not to do with your placements) for yourself. While this can be a bit daunting, it also allows you the flexibility to make the most of your time in Mongolia, both clinically and culturally. 

And if you’re up for the challenge… (Mongolia Charity Rally)

Our first ever-elective students travelled to Mongolia for their elective as part of the Mongolian Rally in an ambulance. If you think you’ve got what it takes to complete the 10,000 mile marathon, we can help set this up for you. We can’t give you the vehicle but we can give you the charity rally contacts, fundraising opportunities and all the help and advice that we didn’t have! From visas to routes, to the going rate for bribes in Kazakhstan, as much or as little input as you want: It’s your elective!

If you don’t fancy that then you can hop on the Trans-Siberian Express, or fly via Moscow, Beijing or Seoul. Just think of the possibilities and adventures you can have just getting there.

If you do decide to take part in the Mongolian Rally, or choose to take your time travelling to and from Mongolia, just bear in mind that you will need to complete a minimum requirement of clinical and teaching activities for us to be able to officially 'sign off' your elective, 

The bigger picture

Obviously the elective can be a lot of fun and for most of us it will be the biggest trip of your life so far. We believe that this experience shouldn’t be limited purely by what you can afford.

We do all we can to make this trip affordable for you and to make our placements in Mongolia sustainable, so year after year medical students and Mongolian doctors can enjoy the benefits. The placement is designed to be mutually beneficial for the doctors and students. Initially students may have a hard time teaching English lessons to doctors who know very little of the language but by putting the effort in year after year, each student that travels to Mongolia makes a lasting impact on the country. This sets the foundations for future students to enjoy the adventures Mongolia has to offer.

Want to know more?

Check out the video of our trip in the latest news and be sure to read our experience that details all of the highs, lows, mess-ups and breakdowns from our own amazing trip.

Begin your adventure by letting us know how YOU want to do your elective here.