Clinical exchange programme is China-UK first

The first ever China-UK clinical exchange programme has been agreed by the Universities of Glasgow and Sun Yat Sen. The programme will see 10 students from each university spend five weeks during the summer in Glasgow and Guangzhou where they will visit hospitals and learn about the challenges faced by health care professionals in their host city. The agreement was signed by Professor Anton Muscatelli, Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Glasgow and Professor Ningsheng Xu, President of Sun Yat Sen University (SYSU) during a visit by SYSU to Gilmorehill. Professor Matthew Walters of the Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, who has been leading on the partnership development with SYSU for the College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, said: "We are thrilled to be building on our existing links with Sun Yat Sen and very excited about this new exchange programme and the other initiatives. "This exchange programme is the first of its kind between the UK and China and will give students from both universities a wonderful opportunity to experience medicine in a different social and cultural context and healthcare systems that differ in the challenges that they face. It also helps them to broaden their horizons and develop links with colleagues in other countries." Earlier this year the two institutions signed an agreement to develop two jointly-delivered programmes in Public Health and Primary Care, adding to two programmes agreed in 2008: Engineering and Computer Sciences.