Tsinghua University and China Vanke Co., LTD signed a cooperation agreement this morning to establish the Vanke School of Public Health, which will boost talent training, scientific research and further enhance China’s capabilities in public health management.

Drawing on Tsinghua’s multidisciplinary advantages, the School will adopt new models of interdisciplinary cooperation and education. It is aimed at covering four research fields and is oriented towards graduate education on: preventative medicine, comprehensive healthcare, big data in healthcare, and public health policy and management.

Vanke will support the School by providing incentives for research innovation, research outcomes and recruitment of talents. A special fund is set up for the development of the School with a donation from Vanke to Tsinghua University Education Foundation.

Aiming to embrace the challenges posed by global medical and health developments and by critical domestic demands, the School will foster leaders in the field and respond to major public health issues at home and abroad.

In the next five to ten years, the School will provide support to China’s epidemic control, vaccine development and decisive think tanks related to major public health policy-making.

In close cooperation with the World Health Organization, the School anticipates becoming a world leader in terms of epidemiology, holistic health monitoring and early warning, and global systemic public health policy and management.

Tsinghua has a solid foundation for building first-class public health disciplines, with a comprehensive discipline structure covering eleven disciplines and a worldwide academic reputation. Numerous teachers from the fields of engineering, management, biomedicine and social sciences, having participated in the field of public health, also are an advantage when it comes to interdisciplinary cooperation.

After the outbreak of SARS, Tsinghua set up a research base for China’s emergency management with the support of the Beijing government. In 2010, Tsinghua began developing its public health discipline by assigning senior faculty to carry out research and postgraduate training.

The University also has experience in running programs for the International Master of Public Health degree. Since 2014, it has trained 112 qualified talented professionals in the field for 32 developing countries. Since 2015, the Institute for Hospital Management of Tsinghua University has worked with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, in medical management, talent training and staff exchange.

Reporter: Li Han