Yunnan University looks into overseas medical students

In this year's 17th Challenge Cup National College Students Extracurricular Academic Scientific and Technological Works Competition, Yunnan University – located in Kunming, capital of Southwest China's Yunnan province – won the special prize with a project called An Investigation and Research on Medical Students in Yunnan from 20 Countries Involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

The team behind it recently shared their story about its development.

Members of the YNU team show off their prize. [Photo/WeChat account of Yunnan University]

Yunnan province is seen as being an important gateway for China to open up to South and Southeast Asia and it is something of a mecca for students from many South and Southeast Asian and even African countries who study abroad.

The project conducted research into issues such as "Why do international students travel thousands of miles to study in China", "China proposes to build a community of human health" and "Building Yunnan into a training base for international medical students in South and Southeast Asia".

A member of the team called Ji Junqi, said those efforts had clearly paid off.

"We not only paid attention to special groups like international medical students, but also focused on the relationship between international medical students and China," Ji said.

"Most of them come from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative and partner countries."

The team analyzed the factors behind the decision by overseas students to study medicine in China, explored the difficulties faced by China in developing international medical education and responded to unfair evaluations from abroad about China's international medical education.