As part of the Faculty of Medicine’s effort to strengthen ties to the world’s largest health care system, 85 Chinese health sciences students were invited to Vancouver this summer to take specially-tailored summer courses in Western pharmacology and clinical research methods.
The Vancouver Summer Program in Medicine was the Faculty’s first-ever such offering, modeled on a similar, decade-old program run by the Sauder School of Business. Nevertheless, the Medicine program is already UBC’s second-largest summer program among the 10 participating schools and faculties, and had to turn away dozens of applicants.
The VSP is one of the only avenues for Chinese students to take advantage of the Faculty’s educational programs, because the MD program does not admit international students and has very few spots in its medical electives for international students not attending an accredited medical school located in an English-speaking country.
The program, besides bolstering the Faculty’s ties with its five partner institutions in China, also helps defray some of the expenses incurred by the Faculty’s regular educational programs for B.C. students. Tuition for the four weeks is $3,850.
The students, most of whom are in their second or third year of university, came from 13 institutions and are enrolled in a health sciences program in China – clinical medicine, pharmacy, biomedical science or oral/dental medicine.
The program consists of two courses, each with 39 hours of class time, equivalent to six credits; classes are held four to five days a week and take up most of the day.
The first two-week class, “Pharmacology of Everyday Life,” is being led Andrew Horne, an Instructor in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics and will cover how drugs enter and leave the body, classes of drugs, and the most widely-used drugs in Western society. It also will include hands-on lab work.
The second course, “Introduction to Clinical Research in the Sciences,” is being led by Ran Goldman, a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics, at BC Children’s Hospital. Part of the course will culminate with a “Research Idol” competition, in which teams of students will vie to make the best research presentation.
“I promise you one of the best experiences of your life, coming to UBC and the Faculty of Medicine,” Dr. Goldman told the students at their orientation in a lecture theatre of the Djavad Mowafaghian Centre for Brain Health. “It’s probably one of the best decisions you’ve made in your life in a very long time.”
He also called Chinese students “the most devoted and dedicated students I’ve ever seen.”
Classes are interactive and include group discussions, guest lecturers, research projects, laboratory experimentation, and visits to research facilities. Course credit is granted at the discretion of the students’ own universities.
“This is proof that I’ve gotten better training in some areas, and reflects my English abilities,” said Jin Huang, who is entering the medical portion of an 8-year educational program at Zhejiang University in Hangzhou.