Global Impact
International Collaboration Begins with MCPHS and Never Stops
Collaboration is a two-way street. One that’s delivering an influx of talent both to and from MCPHS and a range of locations around the world.
Expanding Our Global Reach
Our commitment to expand our global reach took on a new level of meaning toward the end of the 20th century. In the mid-1990s, our Boston site became a residential campus, making it possible for us to bring in new students from near and far. And in 1999, MCPHS President Charles Monahan visited Cuba and obtained a special license from the U.S. government to conduct academic programs there. It signaled a big change in our approach. Momentum only grew from there.
In 2007, Monahan signed an agreement with Hangzhou Medical College in Southeast China to develop international programs in health sciences, establishing an exchange of students and teachers. Many more collaborations would follow, furthering our reach to places our founders could only imagine – from Bolivia to France to India.An MCPHS student places a blood pressure cuff on a patient at a rural health clinic during a service-learning experience in Morocco.
These partnerships expand opportunities and horizons. For example, MCPHS is able to offer clinical rotations abroad to students, a major feat considering curriculum constraints for health sciences programs accredited by professional boards. Students must complete specific clinical training to pursue professional licensure. We find a way to make international experiences work by carefully shaping them with our partners, ensuring that participants graduate on schedule.
How are we going to solve society’s huge problems without empathy? It’s going to be these students who have made connections and understand different people, perspectives, and systems who come up with solutions.
Sara Sanford | Executive Director of International Academic Services
Today’s MCPHS is becoming a launchpad of global talent, providing the international perspective students need to serve patients from different backgrounds, analyze problems from all angles, and affect change.