From 2007-2011, the China Scholarship Council (CSC), under its “Program of Governmental Graduate Student Scholarship” (PGGSS), plans to provide financial support to students from the top 49 Chinese universities toward scientific training abroad.
China plans to provide financial support annually to 5,000 joint degree students (1-2 years) or degree-oriented graduate students (4-5 years) and 7,000 non degree-oriented students/postdoctoral scholars who partake in training at U.S. universities.
The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) is among a growing list of carefully selected American universities that Chinese students can attend through this financial support from the CSC, a significant outcome of the established partnerships with SJTUSM, GUCAS, & XJTUHSC.
UNMC will help to accept joint-training students, degree-seeking graduate students, and postdoctoral scholars for scientific training each year until 2011. The program’s aim is to provide excellent training to Chinese students under the guide of outstanding research scientists at UNMC. This will allow us to develop international scientific exchanges with top rated Chinese universities, furthering our channels of collaboration with these potential scientific partners.
JOINT-TRAINING PROGRAM
This program supports students from a select group of 49 Chinese universities who seek a Ph.D. from their university by completing the required coursework in China, followed by 12 to 24 months of performing research projects supported by a Principal Investigator at UNMC. After this joint-training period, the students then return to their Chinese university for their thesis defense and degree award.
During their stay at UNMC, these visiting graduate students will stay in each prospective department at UNMC. They will attend weekly departmental seminars. Guest speakers from other departments and institutions are invited to present their research at each of their departmental seminars. As students near the end of their studies, they are required to give a formal presentation in the departmental seminar program.
Students will also participate in the department's journal club each year. Each student presents and critiques a paper from the recent research literature, with questions and discussion from their peers. In addition, students need to attend regular laboratory research meetings, with focus on planning day-to-day experiments and solving specific problems related to the ongoing research in those laboratories.
By the end of training at UNMC, these students are required to present at a regional meeting and to attend, and possibly present at, one national/international meeting.
For research projects, the faculties on both sides who are responsible for the joint-training of a Chinese Ph.D. student in this program should cooperate and agree on a research project, including a well designed training plan and research project for the students. And more importantly, a consensual agreement on the copyright of the publications and dissertation related to this program should be underwritten between the faculties on both sides. The graduate schools of UNMC and Chinese universities should assist in the linkage directly between the faculties who are interested in the program, instead of application by students on their own without permission from their advisors at Chinese universities.
