Philip Cotton: building a medical college in Rwanda

Abstract

When Phil Cotton told his teachers at Riddlesdown Comprehensive in Croydon, south London, in the 1970s, that he wanted to be a doctor, they laughed. “We don't do that here”, they said. Almost four decades later, he is helping to establish Rwanda's first medical school as Principal of the newly created College of Medicine and Health Sciences in Kigali. The son of a bank clerk and a shopkeeper, Cotton failed to get the qualifications he needed to do medicine. But he did not give up. After studying biomedical sciences at St Andrews University he got into the University of Glasgow under an access scheme for mature students.