Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Tsinghua University Establish China-Based Doctoral Program

Program will train next generation of public health leaders from China and Pacific Rim countries

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Tsinghua University and Capital Healthcare Group, a Beijing-based financial firm, signed an agreement in Beijing on July 2 that establishes a collaborative doctoral degree in public health in China.

The program is the School’s first collaborative program in China that confers a Doctor of Public Health with a concentration in health care leadership and management. The Tsinghua-Johns Hopkins Public Health Management Program will be based in Tsinghua University’s Institute for Hospital Management. Tsinghua University is one of China’s leading research and educational institutions. The Bloomberg School, the world’s oldest continually operating school of public health, conferred its first Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in 1919.

The Tsinghua-Hopkins Doctor of Public Health program will begin accepting applications next spring, with courses slated to start in the fall of 2016.

“This is an exciting opportunity for us to help train the next generation of public health and health care leaders in China, leaders with a unique perspective on the specific needs of their country,” says Michael J. Klag, MD, MPH, dean of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “The School has worked with Chinese educational institutions going back nearly a century and this new collaboration is another way to strengthen that bond.”

The signing ceremony took place at National Stadium, which is also known as the Bird’s Nest for its modern, nature-inspired design. Joining Dean Klag at the ceremony were Bin Yang, a vice president at Tsinghua University, and Laiying Fang, director of the Beijing Municipal Commission of Public Health and Family Planning, as well as officials from Capital Healthcare.

The program is aimed at professionals in China who have demonstrated leadership in health fields and want training in public health, health care and hospital management.

Tsinghua University’s Institute for Hospital Management was established in 2012. The Institute confers master’s and doctoral degrees in a wide range of fields, including the sciences and medicine. Capital Healthcare Group is a financial and management firm that specializes in hospitals and other health-related businesses. The firm is providing financial support to the Tsinghua-Johns Hopkins Public Health Management Program. 

Founded in 1916, the Bloomberg School is celebrating its Centennial over the next academic year. Originally known as the Johns Hopkins School of Hygiene and Public Health, the School has ties to China that go back nearly a century. William Henry Welch, the School’s first director, served on the Rockefeller Foundation’s China Medical Board, which led to the expansion of Peking Union Medical College. One of the earliest recipients of a Hopkins Doctor of Public Health, John Black Grant, DrPH ’21, joined the PUMC faculty to teach public health and helped establish China’s rural primary care program, the basis for what would become known as the “barefoot doctors” movement in the 1960s.

The Bloomberg School of Public Health, one of nine schools at the Johns Hopkins University, is dedicated to the education of a diverse group of research scientists and public health professionals, a process inseparably linked to the discovery and application of new knowledge, and through these activities, to the improvement of health and prevention of disease, injury and disability around the world.

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Media contact for the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health: Stephanie Desmon at (410) 955-7619 or sdesmon1@jhu.edu.