Scholars visit from Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine

Dr Wu (middle) demonstrating an acupuncture technique

Three scholars from Guangxi University of Chinese Medicine (GXUCM) visited UTAR Sungai Long Campus from 4 March to 20 March 2017.

UTAR and GXUCM have been MoU partners since 2011, back when GXUCM was still named the Guangxi Traditional Chinese Medical University. Both varsities have jointly conducted a variety of scholastic activities such as staff and student exchanges as well as clinical postings.

In order to further promote fruitful collaborations, both UTAR and GXUCM inked another MoU in October 2016 at Nanning, China to strengthen joint ventures in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) education. Among the highlights of the new MoU were provisions for a traditional medicine training programme and a visiting scholar programme.

As a result, three visiting scholars from GXUCM, namely Prof Jiang Xiao, Assoc Prof Han Jingbo and Dr Wu Liangbing were delegated to the UTAR Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Department of Chinese Medicine for lectures, class observations, discussions and more.

Sharing on her 16-day visit to UTAR, Prof Jiang said, “The programme structure is similar to GXUCM’s except that the programme in UTAR is partially bilingual. This visit allowed me to teach smaller classes where I could better focus on each student and have more active teacher-student interactions. The UTAR students are very proactive learners and often demonstrate good mastery towards the learning content.”

Assoc Prof Han echoed Prof Jiang’s sentiments and added, “Besides the difference in class size, the length of the lectures and tutorials here are also longer than GXUCM’s. This presented me with the chance to conduct more comprehensive classes with more attention paid to the details.”

Dr Wu, who first visited UTAR in 2016, enthused, “It is my pleasure to return to UTAR in 2017 and I am happy to see the rapid growth of UTAR’s TCM education. In particular, it is impressive that the students are able to master the jargons and medical concepts in both Chinese and English. There was even a Malay student in my class who surprised me by being fluently conversant in Chinese and able to understand the contents well.”

According to the Department of Chinese Medicine Head Dr Te Kian Keong, the partnership with GXUCM has been one of the most active collaborations the department has. He said, “A few lecturers from the Chinese Medicine Department will be appointed to visit GXUCM this May. We are indeed very honoured to cooperate with many universities and colleges with vast experience in TCM education to improve our department’s growth. I am glad that the department staff and students have become more independent and proficient since these parties have been helping the department to develop and mature quickly.”

Prof Jiang (back row, fourth from left) with some UTAR TCM students

Dr Wu (far left) lecturing in UTAR

Assoc Prof Han (centre, back) with his students at a lecture