Fair Trade Electives
Fair and Equitable Electives — Learn and make a difference
Ethical, community-led medical elective placements arranged hand-in-hand with host hospitals in the Global South.
Electives
Explore a range of ethical, quality-assured electives tailored to your medical education needs
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Universities
Partner with us to provide fair trade elective opportunities for your students, ensuring ethical practices and quality placements
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Partners
Join us as a hospital partner and welcome international medical students while benefiting from charitable fundraising and global partnership
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Students
Discover affordable, ethical electives that support your learning and contribute to host communities in meaningful ways
Click hereOur purpose
Choose the medical elective you can be proud of
Fair Trade Electives was set up to create meaningful medical electives by working hand-in-hand with host communities in the Global South.
Ethical by design
Placements that respect and benefit everyone involved — students and hosts alike.
Not-for-profit
Any surplus is reinvested in the communities we work with.
Simpler to arrange
We take the complexity out of organising a placement abroad.
Built on experience
Backgrounds in medical teaching and international volunteer placements.
So why not trust FTE to help find the right elective for you?
Read our purpose
The best electives don't just train better doctors. They build relationships between people who see each other as equals.
Clinical experience that challenges your assumptions as much as your skills.
In our words
Why we do this
"We built this for the students who wanted to do it right and the communities who deserved better than the alternative."
Amy Blake — CEO
"Immersive travel enriches the human experience by fostering understanding, promoting personal growth, offering perspective and expanding one's worldview"
Jon Dowell — Academic Lead FTE
Our news
Latest News
April 2026
Golden Ticket Winner – Rebecca to Head to Zambia!
We are thrilled to introduce Rebecca Shorter as the recipient of this year's FTE funded elective. Rebecca, a medical student from Leeds University, will be travelling to St Francis' Hospital in Zambia this summer.
April 2026
Welcoming New Universities on Board
We are delighted to welcome Lancaster as a Collaborating Medical School, and Anglia Ruskin, Brighton and Sussex Medical School and Newcastle have also joined our FTE Network.
April 2026
Student Vlog: Life at Uganda Lodge
One of the best ways to understand what an FTE placement is really like is to hear directly from students who are living it. In this new vlog we share Henry's first-hand account from Uganda Lodge.
Thanks for your interest in Fair Trade Electives
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