Significant PKUHSC News and Updates
February 9, 2023

Beginning in 2016, when USC Chan formed a partnership with Peking University Health Science Center (PKUHSC) to develop an innovative dual-degree program, the goal has always been to advance occupational therapy (OT) education, practice, and research standards in China. As we approach the third year since the official launch of the dual-degree program, the USC-PKUHSC partnership has made substantial progress towards those aspirations. The program has yielded occupational therapists who utilize their unique educational background to influence a variety of practice settings in China, including both university and clinical contexts. In the past few years, there have also been significant changes in the administrative and organizational structure of PKUHSC, indicating a positive trend for what is to come in OT education across China.

The first major change at PKUHSC was the creation of the Institute of Medical Technology (IMT) in 2019, which is now the academic home for Rehabilitation Therapy, which encompasses OT, physical therapy, and speech therapy, along with the departments of Health Data Science, Medical Imaging Technology, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Optometry, Radiation Therapy Physics, Respiratory Medical Technology, and Stomatology Technology (see figure below). Training of rehabilitation therapists was formerly offered through the Peking University First and Third Hospitals of PKUHSC. After more than half a decade of collaboration between the China Initiative team and PKUHSC, this important restructure to include a department dedicated to Rehabilitation Therapy will help raise visibility and legitimacy of occupational therapy in Mainland China, where it is not as well-established as it is in the Western world. The foundation they created from their work together has factored into this new academic restructuring that will undoubtedly serve to benefit the development of occupational therapy in China. Dr. Mouwang Zhou, one of the biggest collaborators for this partnership, shared this sentiment recently stating that “within rehab medicine, our program also has [the] influence to promote OT all over the country.”

The new Rehabilitation Therapy department at IMT is led by Professor Ninghua Wang. Both Professor Wang and Professor Zhou have worked closely with the China Initiative since its inception and are the directors of the Rehabilitation Medicine departments at the Peking University First and Third Hospitals, respectively. Additionally, inaugural instructors who were trained at USC, Yijun (Jane) Liu, Liguo Qian, and Hui (Angela) Wang, may assume leadership roles in this department in the future.

Earlier this year, China’s Ministry of Education gave approval for IMT to offer a Professional Master’s program and a Professional Doctorate degree program in rehabilitation therapy (previously research-based) that will require 3 and 4 years to complete, respectively. The duration of these programs is consistent with that of typical master’s and doctoral programs in China, but may be shortened in the future. To be eligible to apply to the master’s program, students must have majored in rehabilitation therapy during their bachelor’s program. Students must have completed a master’s program in rehabilitation therapy to qualify to apply to the doctoral program. Because rehabilitation therapy is known as a secondary-level discipline in China and encompasses occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, orthotics and prosthetics, and Traditional Chinese Medicine, occupational therapy is not yet recognized as a stand-alone major. Therefore, the official title of the degree will be “Master’s/Doctorate of Medical Technology in Rehabilitation Therapy” and further advocacy work will be needed for occupational therapy to reflect as a specialization on the program diploma.

Based upon these programmatic changes, as the PKUHSC faculty continue to culturally adapt the master’s program, which was based upon the USC entry-level Master’s program, they are also now also working to convert the program to a 3-year professional master’s curriculum. The new doctorate program will also be updated to allow for more opportunities to experience different practice areas and tracks (e.g., clinical practice, research, pedagogy) in occupational therapy. Enrollment for the master’s program is currently scheduled to start in Fall 2024. As the IMT is still a new department under the Peking University system, more changes are expected to emerge over the next few years.

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