Since the early 1990s, as a part of China’s higher education reform, individual universities and colleges began to merge with much larger universities into one comprehensive educational entity. As a result, funding and resources for higher education are much better used to enhance medical educational quality and improve institutional efficiency, which have greatly promoted the progress in areas of medical science and education in China. For international students who come to study MBBS in China, these university mergers are good choices because you can make friends with students majoring in diverse disciplines and have more interesting optional courses.
The introduction to the merger situation of three renowned medical universities in China is as follows:
Tongji Medical University
Tongji Medical University was previously known as a german medical school initiated by Doctor Bolon in Shanghai in 1907, which is then given a name called the Medical College of National Tongji University in 1927. Moved to Hankou in 1951, it was named as the Central-south Tongji Medical College after the merger with the Medical College of Wuhan University. The Tongji hospital and Hankou Union Hospital respectively established in 1900 and 1866 were affiliated to the Central-south Tongji Medical College which was given the official name of Tongji Medical University in 1985. In January 1997, Tongji Medical University was included in the list of the national key universities with “211 Project” which was initiated by the Ministry of Education of China. Tongji Medical College was the final official name of Tongji Medical University after joining forces with Huazhong Unversity of Science and Technology.
West China University of Medical Sciences
As one of the top medical universities in China, the former West China University of Medical Science provided courses in stomatology, biomedicine, basic medicine and clinical medicine. The West Union University was jointly established by missionary organizations from the America, Britain and Canada in 1910. It was then merged with Sichuan University which was founded in 1896. The West China Center of Medical Science, SCU was then first introduced to Chinese and the rest of the world and was then recognized as a prestigious medical academy.
Norman Bethune Medical University
Norman Bethune University of Medical Science was named after Norman Bethune, the famous Canadian thoracic surgeon who contributed his whole life to this institution. Established in 1939, it gradually became an essential center for professional medical training and education. It joined forces with Jilin University in 2000 and then the well-known Norman Bethune College of Medicine of Jilin University was introduced to the public for the first time. The focus of the university was on the development of the medical education.
