Undergraduate Education
English (Medical English) Undergraduate Program
I. About us
Quick facts
The English (Medical English) Undergraduate Program started in 2002 as a five-year Bachelor of Arts degree program (initially named Biomedical English). In the past 14 years, the program has graduated 475 students. Currently, it has more than 201 students on campus.
Students of the program have demonstrated mastery of English proficiency. In recent years, they have performed well in the Tests for English Majors (both Level 4 and Level 8), with triumphant passing rates of almost nearly 100% and above 94%, respectively.
Our Aims
The program aims to promote the deep convergence of the teaching and learning of languages, humanities, and healthcare. Recently, it has updated its curriculum in line with the advocacy of “integrating humanities and social sciences with the emerging field in sciences, medicine and engineering” proposed by the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2018 in its "New Liberal Arts" discipline development program and in response to the new developments of the society and the world in the new epoch.
Our Positioning
The positioning of the program is to cultivate interdisciplinary talents with an international horizon that could
understand the culture,language and technologyof medicine and healthcare;
master excellent communication skills in English;
serve the health diplomacy strategies of China;
promote cross-cultural healthcare communication;and
pursue further study in such areas as health humanities, the languageof medicine and healthcare, and global health.
Such positioning, rooted in “Healthcare”, “English” and “Humanities”, could foster top-notch, innovative, interdisciplinary talents that could meet the international health development strategies of China and the needs of society.
II. Our uniqueness
1. Multi-disciplinary and personalized education
(1) Customized courses on healthcare systems
To serve the health diplomacy strategy of the country, talents must be knowledgeable in medicine and public health. They need to understand the healthcare systems of China as well as other countries. Supported by our collaborator, the PKU China Center for Health Development Studies, instructors from the center would offer the following customized English-instructed courses:
COMPULSORY COURSES:
Introduction to Health and Public Health, and Research Methods in Health Studies .
ELECTIVE COURSES:
Hospital Management, Global Health, Health Policy, Health Statistics, and International Health Communication and Exchange and so on .
(2) Wide-scoped yet focused medical courses
The program would expect a more focused course in the core medicine courses, such as Anatomy, Embryology, Physiology, Biochemistry , and Pathology in basic medicine, as well as Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Pediatrics in clinical medicine. To enrich students’ medical knowledge and allow for a macro-perspective, comprehensive understanding of medicine, the program plans to set up a series of introductory courses such as Introduction to Basic Medicine , Introduction to Clinical Medicine , and Introduction to Pharmac eutical Sciences .
(3) Stratified English language skill courses
As international communication competence requires mastery of English, the language skill courses would be constantly strengthened in the program. The English skills training of the program is characterized by: 1) The teaching of language skills is stratified. The students’ skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing would be evaluated and corresponding courses would be assigned according to their performance in evaluations. 2) The program would strengthen the construction of content-based language teaching courses related to medicine and healthcare. These courses include Vocabulary in Medicine, Medical and Healthcare Literature reading, Medical and Health Paper Writing, Medical and Healthcare Translation, and Cultures in the Health Systems .
2.“Problem-oriented” and “learning-oriented” medical humanities education
With the advantage of the multidisciplinarity at the School of Health Humanities, the program tries to break the silos of disciplines and promote the construction of a “problem-oriented” and “learning-oriented”medical humanities curriculum. To that end, it has required more credits for electives and offered many electives in medical humanities.
We also hope to lay a solid foundation for the cultivation of international and interdisciplinary talents through enhanced penetration of English instruction. Currently, most of the medical humanities courses are taught in English, in the future, we expect all medical humanities courses to be taught in English.
3.Engaging students in research
Having outstanding research capability is an important goal for the cultivation of students in leading universities. The program has carried out systematic research training for its students. First, through well-planned courses, training, and lectures, we teach students various research methods. Secondly, students can apply for funding from the University’s “Students’Research Project" every year. Under this project, students can propose their research topics and if approved, canget funding and supervision from experienced faculty of the school, or even other schools. Besides, students could join the faculty's project teams that interest them.
4.Innovation and practicum courses
The foundation of innovation lies in practice. Practicum courses, as the vehicle to train students’ innovation and social adaptability, are an important part of cultivating leading talents. We have built up a practicum course system that offers courses of different categories and requirements for different classesof the program to enhances students' hand-on skills and innovation ability, for example, the Classic Book Reading and Academic Conference Volunteer Service for the lower classesstudentsis aimedat improving their humanistic literacy, communication skills, and awareness of serving the society; and the Medical Literature Translation and Pre-Graduation Internship for the upper classesfor comprehensive improvement of their interpersonal ability, knowledge application ability, and problem-solving ability before they join the workforce in society.
5.International perspectives
(1) International dual-degree programs
Currently, we are running the 4+1 dual degree programswith the University of Edinburgh, University College London, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. We also haveexchange programwith the University of California, Berkeley. We look forward to cooperating with more institutions in more diversified ways. Apart from these programs, we havesigneda memorandum of understanding on cooperation with La Trobe University of Australia for the “Internationalization at Home” project. Under this MoU, faculty of both sides would jointly offer an online course Health Humanities ; students from our program would attend classes and have discussions with La Trobe students via the Internet.
(2) English instruction
At present, all the language skill courses and most medical humanities courses (electives) have adopted English instruction. With the English instruction of various courses to be taught soon by the PKU China Center for Health Development Studies, the program would create an immersive English environment for all the students.
III. Employmentability of graduates
Most of the graduates have attendedprestigious universities at home and abroad for further study or work in large foreign-funded enterprises or state-owned public institutions. A few students havechosen to start their own businesses. Taking the 36 students who graduated in 2018 as an example, 14 (38.9%) chose to study in graduate schools in China, 11 (30.1%) chose to do so abroad, and 9 (25.0%) chose to work with enterprises or public institutions. Most of the graduates would choose to study or work in medicine/health/healthcare-related areas. With expertise in English and knowledge in medicineand public health, they have been performing well with their work/studies, and have been well received by society.
Where did our graduates go?
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4+1, bachelor+master international dual-degree programs |
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Health and Humanities, University College London Psychology related majors, University of Edinburgh Public Health related majors, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine |
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The international exchange partner universities |
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Public Health, University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley) |
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Health Humanities, La Trobe University |
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Selected areas of study and graduate schools (overseas) |
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Global Health and Population, Biostatistics, and Human Health Science, Harvard University Public Health, Johns Hopkins University Health Policy and Management, Yale University Global Health, Columbia University Global Health, Duke University Classical Studies, University of Cambridge Global Health, University of Oxford Multiple majors in public health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine Finance, London School of Economics and Political Science Interpreting and Translation, University of Manchester Bioinformatics, University of Sydney Biomedical engineering, Kyoto University |
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Selected graduate schools and areas of study (domestic) |
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World Economics, Business Administration, Software Engineering, Chinese, Psychology, English, Journalism and Communication, and Pharmacology, Peking University |
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Health Management, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences/Peking Union Medical College |
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Journalism and Communication, Computer Science and Technology, Finance, Tsinghua University |
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Finance, Shanghai Jiao Tong University Basic Medical Sciences, The Chinese University of Hong Kong |
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Information Science, Journalism and Communication, Renmin University of China |
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Cognitive Neuroscience, Beijing Normal University |
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English and American literature, and simultaneous interpretation, Beijing Foreign Studies University |
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Accounting, and English interpreting, University of International Business and Economics |
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Selected employers |
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Ministry of Commerce, China |
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Department of International Cooperation and Exchange, Ministry of Health (now National Health Commission), China |
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China Medical Board, U.S. |
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Chinese Medical Association, China |
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World Bank |
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Union Bank of Switzerland (UBS) |
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Shanghai Head Office, the People's Bank of China |
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Head Office, the Export-Import Bank of China |
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Beijing Branch, China Development Bank |
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Pfizer |
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MSD |
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Bayer Medical & Health Products Co., Ltd. |
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Merck Serono Pharmaceuticals |
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OMRON Corporation, Japan |
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Genertec Universal Medical Group Co., Ltd |
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Deutsche Telekom AG |
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Peking University First Hospital Peking University People's Hospital |
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Peking University Third Hospital Peking University Hospital of Stomatology |
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Beijing Cancer Hospital Peking University Health Science Center |
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KPMG |
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PricewaterhouseCoopers |
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The Boston Consulting Group |
