Dr. Nailya DeLellis, President of the Executive Council of the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA), sent a letter of confirmation on October 20^th to HUST, informing that the Undergraduate Health Administration Program of School of Medicine and Health Management at Tongji Medical College of HUST has passed the final evaluation of AUPHA’s Board of Directors and become a Full Certified Undergraduate Program upon passing the final review by the AUPHA Board of Directors. It has become the first undergraduate program and also the first Undergraduate Health Administration Program in China to be certified by this international educational organization.

The School of Medicine and Health Management has consistently and actively engaged in international exchanges and promoted international professional certification to achieve the high-quality development of Health Administration education to cultivate excellent world-recognized and domestic-leading health management talents. Dean Feng Zhanchun, Associate Dean Zhang Xiang, and Associate Professor Xiong Juyang, who oversees the international certification of undergraduate programs in the School of Medicine and Health Management, have attended the AUPHA annual meeting for five consecutive years. In March 2017, Huazhong University of Science & Technology became an international member of AUPHA. Later in July, Dr. Keith Benson, then President of AUPHA, and Dr. Gerald Glandon, Secretary General of AUPHA, visited the School of Medicine and Health Management. In 2019, the School of Medicine and Health Management was accredited as a candidate for AUPHA's Undergraduate Health Administration Program.

In 2020, the School of Medicine and Health Management officially launched the international certification of the Undergraduate Health Administration Program and set up the international certification task force. After more than two years of intensive preparation, the Undergraduate Health Administration Program was formally evaluated by the AUPHA international certification team in the early morning of June 24^th this year. After the School of Medicine and Health Management's introduction, self-assessment report, and oral defense, the certification team expressed full affirmation and high evaluation of the accomplishments made by the school over the one-and-a-half-hour appraisal process.

In response to the new challenges posed by the coronavirus epidemic, the School of Medicine and Health Management will take the international certification as an opportunity to further promote the certification of Health Administration education and China's health management education, to a new high-quality level to assist in the implementation of Health China Initiative.

Since its founding in 1950, AUPHA has been dedicated to promoting the prosperity and development of health administration education. It aims at providing international certification for undergraduate and graduate Health Administration Programs for universities and has become a global non-profit organization for health management professional certification. AUPHA also has been engaging in health management education.

Source: School of Medicine and Health Management

Written by: Liu Yuang

Edited by: Luo Xiaofan, Peng Yumeng