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College of Graduate Health Sciences Hosts Visitors to Strengthen Student Exchange Collaboration with China

Written by Peggy Reisser

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Education

 

Visitors from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C., spent the day in Memphis Wednesday to meet with UTHSC leaders and College of Graduate Health Sciences faculty, staff, and students to talk about efforts to increase student exchange programs in China. From left, Weikuan Gu, UTHSC Department of Orthopaedic Surgery; UTHSC Executive Vice Chancellor Kennard Brown; Minister Counselor of Education Yang Xinyu; UTHSC Chancellor Steve J. Schwab; Graduate Health Sciences Dean Donald Thomason; and Second Secretary, Department of Education, Zou Ying, (Photo by Peggy Reisser/UTHSC)

The College of Graduate Health Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center Wednesday hosted education leaders from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United States to discuss educational relationships the college is developing with universities in China.

Minister Counselor of Education Yang Xinyu and Zou Ying, Second Secretary, Department of Education, both from the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in Washington, D.C., met with leaders of the college and the university, toured the campus, and visited with UTHSC students from China.

College of Graduate Health Sciences Dean Donald Thomason, PhD, said the visit was a result of the educational relationships the college has already developed and continues to expand with academic institutions in China. “Among these are an agreement with Harbin Medical University, a newly proposed consortium of universities in Northeast China and Beijing, and an initiative to develop joint postdoctoral fellow training programs,” he said.

The visitors met with UTHSC  leaders and students. (Photo by Natalie Brewer/UTHSC)

Minister Counselor Yang said she had heard a lot about the academic, clinical, and research activities at UTHSC, and had been eager to visit. She pronounced the university “very impressive,” in size, facilities, and academic and clinical programs.

She said her office is celebrating 40 years of student academic exchange with the United States this month and is looking forward to hearing from some of the pioneering exchange students about how the experience affected their lives and careers.

“Student exchange has really played an important role,” she said. “We want to continue this people-to-people exchange.”

Dean Thomason said the college wants to focus a major portion of its student exchange effort in researching diseases related to aging. UTHSC students, as part of a proposed exchange with China, would have an opportunity to study aging in rural areas of China, where access to primary health care is scarce.

“This is a very good focus that would have a lot of impact,” Yang said.

“We want to support and work together,” she said.