WSU Spokane Graduate Program in Health Policy and Administration Enters Five-Year Agreement with Peking University

SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington State University and Peking University (PKU), known as a leading medical and health sciences university in China, have finalized an international agreement to establish and conduct a collaborative educational program. The program will offer WSU’s ACEHSA-accredited Master of Health Policy and Administration degree to 20 new Chinese students per year for five years.

The first student cohort is planned to begin in Fall 2003. Under the terms of the agreement, students from Peking University who are admitted to the program will complete the first year at Washington State University Spokane and the second year at Peking University (PKU), concluding with commencement in Beijing. Students admitted to the collaborative program would be eligible for Washington resident tuition rates during the year they are studying at WSU.

“This clearly demonstrates the worldwide reputation of Washington State University programs as we partner with Peking University,” said V. Lane Rawlins, President of WSU. “We are looking forward to this partnership and all of its many opportunities during the next five years.”

According to Joseph Coyne, associate professor of health policy and administration at WSU and co-director of the WSU-PKU International Program, there is much to gain from the program. “Among the opportunities are the significant instructional and research benefits gained by our domestic students and faculty through learning about the Chinese health system, as well as the many new and different perspectives of Eastern medicine on health policy and administration,” he said. “Some of these benefits will be attained by our faculty guest lecturing at PKU during the second year and directly observing the Chinese health system.”

Dong Zhe, professor and dean of the department of international cooperation at PKU and co-director of the WSU-PKU International Program, says, “We view this as an excellent opportunity for PKU students to broaden their health system horizons by enrolling in WSU classes for the first year and then returning to PKU for their second year to apply their knowledge and skills from the Western world to the medical practices and organizations from the Eastern world.”

The graduate program in health policy and administration in the College of Pharmacy at WSU Spokane is one of only 68 health services administration programs accredited by ACEHSA in North America. (News release online, May 18, 2000: www.wsu.edu/NIS/releases3/bc124.htm.)

ACEHSA is the Accrediting Commission on Education for Health Services Administration. Accreditation by ACEHSA is the most important assurance that a graduate program meets the quality standards developed by the profession and the health services industry. With this recognition of its quality, the HPA program is one of the top four health administration programs in the 14-state Western region comprised of Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.

For additional information about the master’s degree in health policy and administration, please contact Professor Winsor Schmidt, chair (schmidtw@wsu.edu), or Academic Coordinator Kiley Schenk (schenk@wsu.edu).

Web sites:
Department of Health Policy and Administration: www.hpa.spokane.wsu.edu.
WSU Spokane: www.spokane.wsu.edu.
Peking University: www.pku.edu.cn/ehomepage (English version).
Peking University Health Science Center: www.bjmu.edu.cn/E_bjmu/E-jypy/lxsh.htm (English).
Accrediting Commission on Education for Health Services Administration: www.acehsa.org.

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