After two years of conversations, representatives from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China, in May to sign a memorandum of understanding formalizing collaboration between the two universities.
Stephen Eckel, Pharm.D., M.H.A., the associate dean for global engagement and a clinical associate professor in the Division of Practice Advancement and Clinical Education, attended the signing with Dhiren Thakker, Ph.D., the Howard Q. Ferguson Distinguished Professor and associate dean for entrepreneur development and engagement.
“We recognized pretty clearly that they were a type of school and faculty that we would like to develop a stronger relationship with,” Eckel said. “They complemented us very well along faculty research, and we were looking for some partners within Asia, and specifically China, that we might be able to send our students to so they could learn and have experiences over there.”
During their time at SJTU, Eckel and Thakker met with many of the university’s research faculty and learned about ongoing projects. They also met with hospital pharmacy directors and government officials to learn more about the role pharmacists play in Shanghai hospitals.
“This is really our first significant initiative within China, so we’re very excited about the opportunity to better understand pharmacy and pharmaceutical science within that country,” Eckel said. “We are eager to collaborate with some of their cutting-edge scientists and practitioners to improve the way that we provide education to our students.”
The School is also in talks with SJTU about their summer educational experiences in traditional Chinese medicine, which Eckel said would be a good fit for Pharm.D. students.
“To advance ourselves as a school and continue to learn and be able to provide cutting-edge education to our students, we need to have an appreciation of what’s going on around the world and broaden ourselves to understand things that are happening within various cultures and be able to bring them back to the classroom and our own research labs,” he said. “The value of global partnerships is to be able to work with peer institutions, learn from them, collaborate with them and partner with them so that it helps out our responsibility to the citizens of North Carolina.”