Comparison of U.S. and Chinese pharmacy education programs

Abstract

Pharmacy students at the University of Kentucky (UK) are required to complete 10 one-month rotations during the final year of pharmacy school. In 2007, the college’s first director for international professional student education started to increase opportunities for international and multicultural educational experiences for UK pharmacy students, with the hope of offering students a broader perspective of health care.1 At Peking University Third Hospital (PUTH)––a practice site for pharmacy students from Peking University—the director of the department of pharmacy also wanted to provide students with multicultural educational experiences. To this end, a contract between UK and PUTH was signed, and PUTH started to receive students from UK in 2008. Since the implementation of this program, a total of 13 international pharmacy students finished their rotation at PUTH and 1 pharmacy student from PUTH finished her rotation at UK. In this program, pharmacy students from UK or PUTH are responsible for their transportation costs and daily costs during their stay; no additional tuition is required.