This research started with a paper review. Articles with topics about Chinese Medicine education were collected and analysed. Afterwards experts, like the Vice President of CMU as well as the Director of the CMU Graduate Institute of Chinese Medical Science were consulted to discuss these collected articles in consideration of the research topic. This research has the aim to compare a high standard (university) Chinese Medicine education in different countries. Thus, only top universities or schools with a regular degree program were included. In this research the term Chinese Medicine can also be understood as Oriental Medicine. Therefore, countries using the term Oriental Medicine instead of Chinese Medicine were included as well.
The first aim was to understand the whole situation of Chinese Medicine education in the respective countries. On the one hand there were countries which have a long tradition of Chinese Medicine and therefore have established a university degree CM education. On the other hand there were countries which do not have a long CM tradition but have already established a university CM education, too. After getting an understanding of the CM educational situation in the country, top institutions were chosen to be part of this research. For the schools or universities there were the following inclusion criteria:
1. There is a regular Chinese Medicine degree program at the university.
2. The degree or final exam allows the person to work as a physician of Chinese Medicine in the respective country.
Different universities from different countries were contacted and information which was required for this research was collected. To analyse and compare the universities the following information was needed:
1. Curricula with all of the subjects, credits and didactic hours 2. Entry requirements for the study of CM
3. Academic degree after finishing the study
4. Whether a licensing exam is needed in order to work as a Chinese Medicine physician
If the university had different curricula, only those for local students with a specialisation in Chinese Medicine were chosen. Programs which have a specialisation in e.g. Chinese Traumatology etc were excluded.
The curricula were analysed from different perspectives and several categories were created. After finishing categorisation, the curricula were compared according to subjects, credits, teaching hours and distinctiveness.
At first Chinese Medicine and Western Medicine courses were separated. The Chinese Medicine courses were categorised into Chinese Medicine Foundation Studies, Chinese Medicine Classical Texts and Chinese Medicine Clinical Studies. Chinese Medicine Foundation Studies should have the aim to build up a basic theoretical foundation of CM including for example Introduction of Chinese Medicine, History of Medicine, Archaic Chinese Medical Literature, Herbal Pharmacy of Chinese Medicine and Prescriptions of Chinese Medicine etc.
Courses which contained Classical Chinese text books were categorised as Chinese Medicine Classical Texts e.g.: “Huangdi`s Internal Classic” (Huang Di Nei Jing《黃帝內經》), “Treatise on Cold Damage Diseases” (Shang Han Lun
《傷寒論》), “Synopsis of Prescriptions of the Golden Chamber” (Jin Gui Yao Lue 《 金 匱 要 略 》 ) etc. Courses with a clinical content were categorised as Chinese Medicine Clinical Studies like Diagnostics of Chinese Medicine, Chinese Internal Medicine, Acupuncture etc.
Western Medicine Courses were categorised in one category containing courses which build up a preclinical and clinical knowledge. Courses with research content have been separated and put in an extra category as well as medicine associated courses, like History of Medicine, Medical Ethics, Medical English etc. Courses which have no medical content were categorised as others.
Electives, which do not belong to a special field and could therefore not be categorised were put in the Elective Category. In order to achieve a better comparability, electives which belonged to a special field were categorised in the related category, e.g. if a student can select 8 credits from a Classical Chinese text category, these credits were categorised as Classical Chinese texts. The internship was listed in a separate category.
Curricula which were provided in English or Chinese were not translated.
Some universities provided bilingual curricula. However, same courses
sometimes were translated differently, which might lead to confusion. Curricula which used other languages were translated into English. The original curricula can be found in the appendix.
3.1 Research about CM-Education in Taiwan R.O.C
In Taiwan two universities were found which have a Chinese Medicine program. The first university is the China Medical University (CMU) in Taichung.
The second university is the Chang Gung University in Taoyuan.
For this research the 5, 7 and 8 years Chinese Medicine curricula were investigated. After contacting the School of Post-Baccalaureate Chinese Medicine the office pointed out that the curriculum and other information needed can be found on the internet. The Curriculum and other information were taken from the following website: http://www2.cmu.edu.tw/~cmed/spbcm/. The internet curriculum contained all the subjects, credits and didactic hours.
The School of Chinese Medicine also posted the current curricula on the internet but didactic hours couldn’t be found. The Office explained that one credit of theory lesson is equivalent to 18 hours/semester which means 1credit =1 hour/per week. Every Semester has 18 weeks. 1 lab credit equals 36hours/semester and 1 clinical credit is equal to 40hours/semester. The curriculum was found on the following website:
http://www2.cmu.edu.tw/~cmed/chimed/news.php. Further questions have been discussed with the responsible person at the office.
The College of Medicine at Chang Gung University has an 8 year Chinese Medicine curriculum which has been investigated in this research. The curriculum was published on the following website: http://www.cgu.edu.tw/CM/., but didactic hours were not listed on the internet. To calculate the hours for every subject the same method was used as for China Medical University (see above).
3.2 Research about CM-Education in P.R. China
In the P.R. China there areseven Chinese Medicine universities and about 25 Chinese Medicine colleges19. Within those, four universities have a leading role in the Chinese Medicine education: Beijing, Shanghai, Nanjing and Guangzhou.
After the reunification, Hong Kong also established Chinese Medicine schools at
three different universities. All of the universities were contacted via e-mail.
According to the criteria above five and seven years curricula from different universities in P.R. China were selected for this research.
Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine posted all of their curricula, including credits and didactic hours on their homepage:
http://www.shutcm.com/shutcm/jwc/bzkjy/jxjh/index.shtml
The curricula of the Nanjing University of TCM containing credits and didactic hours were found on the following homepage:
http://jwc.njutcm.edu.cn/info/upload/1155430872634.rar
The Curricula of the Beijing University of TCM were taken from the following book: Study for development of Curriculum and entrance examination for School of Oriental Medicine (2007).
In Hong Kong there are three universities which have a School of Chinese Medicine: Baptist University, Chinese University and Hong Kong University. All of these universities have a five year undergraduate Chinese Medicine program.
The information provided on the homepage were not enough, therefore the universities were contacted via e-mail. The three universities sent curricula and information needed for this research by e-mail or fax.
The curricula which were sent, however, did not include the didactic hours for every subject. Therefore, information how to calculate the didactic hours were provided by every university.
At Baptist University one credit is equal to one theory hour or three lab hours per week. One Semester has 14 weeks, which means one credit equals 14 theory hours or 42 lab (or clinical) hours/semester. One internship credit is equal to 40 hours/week. Chinese University basically uses the same system as Baptist University.
At Hong Kong University 1 credit is equal to 8 hours / per week. There is not distinction between theory and lab credits.
3.3 Research about CM-Education in Korea
There are more than 10 universities in Korea which have a Chinese Medicine program20. Two universities were chosen to be included in this research.
The College of Oriental Medicine at the Kyung Hee University, which has a six year undergraduate program, is known to be one of the best institutions for Chinese Medicine in Korea. The university was approached and the curriculum was sent by e-mail. As the curriculum was written in Korean language the interpretation and translation of it was done with the help of a Korean student at the China Medical University.
The Graduate School of Oriental Medicine at the Pusan University is a new institution teaching Chinese Medicine and is supposed to be Korea’s only school which has a 4 years postgraduate Chinese Medicine program. The translated curriculum was available at the school office of the Post-Baccalaureate Chinese Medicine at China Medical University.
3.4 Research about CM-Education in Japan
In Japan all of the schools teaching CM are actually acupuncture schools. The Meiji University of Integrative Medicine is supposed to have a leading role among the acupuncture schools in Japan. The school was contacted via e-mail and the curriculum was mailed. According to information provided by the university, didactic hours were calculated. For Courses regarded as basic educational classes one credit equals 15 hours/semester. One credit of Internship is equivalent to 45 hours. Other subjects were calculated with one credit equals 30 hours.
As the delivered curriculum was written in Japanese it had to be translated into English with the help of a Japanese student at CMU.
3.5 Research about CM-Education in Australia
In Australia there are three public and two private universities which have a Chinese Medicine program. The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), however, is the only university with a five years undergraduate program, which is supposed to be equivalent to Asian Chinese Medicine universities21.
The RMIT University was contacted via e-mail and the curriculum and didactic hours were sent.
3.6 Research about CM-Education in USA
In the USA there are about 60 Schools of Chinese Medicine with an accredited four years postgraduate Chinese Medicine program22. The Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, which is known to be one of the best institutions for CM education in the USA, was contacted via internet. The curriculum was found on the following homepage: http://www.pacificcollege.edu. A list with the didactic hours for every subject was sent by e-mail.
3.7 Research about CM-Education in Europe
In Europe only one school was found, which has a regular Chinese Medicine degree program. Middelsex University in the UK offers an accredited four year TCM bachelor degree program. Unfortenately it was not possible to receive the TCM curriculum from Middelsex University. Therefore it is not contained in this research.