Tulane to establish joint degree program with China's Nanjing Medical University

The Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine has entered into a memorandum of understanding with China’s Nanjing Medical University to establish a joint degree program.

Under the agreement, Chinese students will have the opportunity to complete a bachelor of preventive medicine degree at the Nanjing Medical University over the course of four years, then travel to New Orleans to complete the requirements for a master of public health degree at Tulane in two years.

In China, the usual period to complete both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree would be seven or eight years. Under the joint degree program with Tulane, students will complete both degrees in an expedited six years. The MOU was signed by both Dean Pierre Buekens of the Tulane School of Public Health and Dr. Hongbing Shen, president of the Nanjing Medical University.

“The 4+2 program [will prepare] students to become leading public health professionals capable of addressing current global health problems through multidisciplinary approaches that apply the latest scientific knowledge,” according to the MOU.

Both Dean Buekens and President Shen were enthusiastic about the program. “We are extremely committed to the goals of global health,” said Dean Buekens. “This program will bring Chinese students to the U.S. to study public health who will then be able to use those skills to address public health challenges in China. We look forward to a strong and growing partnership with Nanjing.”

This will be the first such program Nanjing Medical University has arranged, and it was coordinated for Tulane by Dr. Jiang He, Joseph S. Copes Chair of Epidemiology. Dr. He has worked with Dr. Shen, and has traveled to the medical university in Nanjing, which has schools of public health, stomatology, pharmacy, nursing, health policy and management, and clinical medicine, among other focus areas.