A high-level educational delegation from the Chinese regional city of Changzhou has visited the Flinders University’s Medical School as part of a fact-finding mission in Adelaide.
The visitors, including the Vice-President of Changzhou University Professor Kuiqing Chen and Mr Zhang Jiyan from the Jiangsu provincial city’s Office of Development and Planning, met representatives from the Flinders School of Medicine to discuss future potential collaborations.
With almost 16,000 students and 180 academics, Changzhou University offers 67 undergraduate and 20 postgrad programs and has a range of international partnerships including five Ministry of Education-accredited joint degree programs with St Francis Xavier University in Canada, New Jersey City University in the US and Ireland’s Maynooth University.
Flinders Medical School is recognised as a leader in medical education, with its Doctor of Medicine (MD) qualification highly regarded around the world as an outstanding clinical and academic vocational qualification.
“This engagement reflects the quality of Flinders University’s internationally recognised medical education program,” says Professor Chris Franco, the International Dean of Flinders’ Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences.
“This delegation was impressed by the integrated Flinders approach and the innovation and continuous quality improvement that is evident in our MD programs.
“Any future collaborations will allow for mutually beneficial advances in research as well as teaching and learning,” Professor Franco says.
Changzhou is both an education and economic hub of the Jiangsu region near Shanghai. It is looking to expand its tertiary sector with an innovative medical school.
Other visitors at the event were Professor Zhiqiang Cai, from the Changzhou University School of Pharmaceutical Engineering and Life Science, Chengxian Shi, Vice-Dean of the School of Information Science and Engineering, and Zhifeng Du, Deputy Director of the University’s International Office.
Sebastian Raneskold, the University’s Pro Vice-Chancellor (International), says: “We are very pleased to meet with counterparts from China, the largest market for Australia’s higher education industry sector.
“As a pioneer of graduate-entry medical education in Australia, we feel Flinders is well placed to assist Changzhou University as it considers the establishment of a medical school,” Mr Raneskold says.