Major of Preventive Medicine

Introduction to the Major

Since the Major of Preventive Medicine was created and started recruiting students in 1999, 18 years have passed and we became the first higher education institute that created the Major of Preventive Medicine in Zhejiang Province. With only 60 students in the beginning and nowadays recruiting 90 students each year in average, we recruit the most number of students in preventive medicine in Zhejiang Province. Since its creation, the Major of Preventive Medicine has been making continuous progress and development and has made outstanding achievements. It has been listed as the characteristic specialty by “12^th five-year-plan” and first-class discipline by the “13^th five-year-plan”. Preventive Medicine is taking its advantage and possessing good future.

02 Talents training

Length of study: 5 years; Degree to be awarded: Bachelor of Medicine

Goal of training:

To train talents with applied knowledge in Preventive Medicine and innovation capacity for public health institutes.

Training approaches

Theory teaching: mainly including basic medicine knowledge such as human anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, pathogenic biology, pathological anatomy, pathological physiology, and medical immunology; clinical medicine, including diagnostics, internal medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, and infectious diseases; preventive medicine, including health statistics, epidemiology, sanitary science, occupational health and occupational medicine, nutrition and food hygiene, health education and health promotion, and child hygiene.

Practical teaching: including on-campus practices and practices outside the campus. Practices outside the campus include 5-month clinical practice and 5-month professional practice. Places for professional practices include the following:

Intern bases in Zhejiang Province: cover 100% provincial level and municipal two-level disease prevention and control center and public health inspection center in the province;

Intern bases outside Zhejiang Province: Disease Control and Prevention Center and Public Health Inspection Center of Gansu Province, Disease Control and Prevention Center of Henan Province, and Disease Control and Prevention Center of Kunming City.

03 Employment

Employment: Preventive medicine graduates have broad employment choices. ① Around 50% of the graduates find employment in disease control and prevention centers and public health inspection centers and engage in disease monitoring, chronicle disease prevention and control, health education, and public health supervision; ② around 20% of the graduates find employment in hospital, maternal and children’s healthcare hospital, and community public health service centers and engage in epidemiologic research, maternal and children’s health administration, and prevention and control of hospital infections; ③ some become national and provincial public servants, work for State Food and Drug Administration, and Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau; ④ some work for famous domestic and overseas companies and engage in data analysis, R&D, or business planning. Over years the employment rate of graduates has remained above 95%.

Further education: We encourage/motivate students to take further education and around 20% of them continue to take postgraduate studies. Each year we see our graduates enrolled with 985-level universities including Zhejiang University, Fudan University and Beijing University for master’s or doctor’s degree in epidemiology and health statistics, occupational and environmental health, nutrition and food hygiene. Apart from above mentioned employment opportunities, they can also choose to teach and conduct research in higher education institutes or carry out R&D, market monitoring, and big data analysis in research institutes or large companies. The employment rate and employment level are continuing to increase.

04 Globalization and joint education

We are working with University of Arizona in the United States in conducting “4+1” training program, which allows students to gain bachelor’s degree awarded from both China and the U.S. (dual degree); we are also conducting short-term exchange programs with Sun Yat-sen Medical University in Taiwan, Linnaeus University in Sweden, and University of Miyazaki in Japan.

05 Enrollment quality and student development

Course code: 100401;  number of subjects selected: 3; Area of studies: Physics, Chemistry, Biology

Wenzhou Medical University has always been known for its outstanding academic atmosphere. In the past five years, the success rate of graduates from previous years participating in National Public Health Practitioner’s Exam has remained at 15% above national average. In 2013 candidates from WMU got the highest score 523 in the exam. Graduates from WMU have also won high acclaims from their employers due to their outstanding performances.

We aim to maintain a high teaching quality and encourage students to take part in all national and provincial competitions and they too have achieved excellent results in those competitions, including first prize in “Challenge Cup” College Students Extracurricular Academic Project Competition and Gold Award in “Youth Innovation” National College Students Entrepreneurship Competition.

In their spare time, our students will engage in all sorts of voluntary activities, including “Youth to the Countryside”, “Life of Bone Marrow”, “AIDS Prevention”, “Water Governance” and many other charity activities. We encourage students to follow current events and we are continuously working on training their social responsibility and improving their social adaptability.