Cooperation between the University and China in medicine

Cooperation with China is an overarching priority for the University, said SPbU Deputy Rector for International Affairs Sergei V. Andriushin at the opening of the meeting. Nowadays, SPbU has approximately 40 university-partners in China, and the collaboration agreement with Sichuan University is to boost cooperation between the Universities. The main field of study in Sichuan University is medicine, but the parties are ready to develop cooperation in other spheres as well.

“Today, the University is striving to lead Russia and the world in research; moreover it is endeavouring to boost economy and renovate science in Russia, — said Sergei V. Andriushin. — SPbU is a classical university, which provides a wide range of areas in education and research, and we are interested in enduring and stable partnership between our universities. Today, none of the subjects of study and research areas is separate from others; interdisciplinary approach holds the key. So far, we have successfully established cooperation in medicine, it is high time we jointed our efforts and developed other areas as well: chemistry, physics, and biology”.

Sichuan University ranks tenth in the university table leagues in China: today, the University focuses on 130 subjects of study, both in humanities and sciences, and the student body is approximately 20,000 of undergraduate and graduate students and 15,000 of post-graduate students, said Dr Li Hong, Executive Vice President. “Your University, obviously, is a top world’s university; it has enormously contributed to advancing science, locally and globally. We therefore are interested in partnership in academic staff exchange, — said Dr Li Hong. — In China-Russia association of medical universities, our University has already signed some agreements of this kind. We have implemented exchange programmes with Bashkir State Medical University, and we have a good opinion about Russian students and therefore we are interested in cooperation with SPbU”.

SPbU researchers shared how they see cooperation between the Universities. The cooperation should be interdisciplinary in nature and not constrained by one sphere, said Leonid P. Churilov, head of the Department of Pathology at SPbU. “Although medicine, as a research area, was established in SPbU as few as 20 years ago, now it is of the highest quality in Russia. The nearest future, to my mind, is going to bring some new joint projects for us. So far, we are not quite well aware of what research areas you are currently developing, but SPbU is actively engaged in ambitious projects across a broad range of research areas”. Leonid P. Churilov listed some of the areas which, to his mind, would be interesting to develop, among them is infectious disease treatment and prevention, new conservation techniques of anatomical mounts, and autoimmune endocrine diseases to name but a few. The dental clinic at Sichuan University, he added, is the best one in China, and dentists from SPbU would be eager to cooperate with Chinese peers.

The Universities have signed a collaboration agreement and officially establish partnership relationship between the Universities.