By Wang Yuan from the School of Economics and Management

A total of 183 second-year undergraduates of Tsinghua SEM will go to the countryside of Shanghai, Hunan, Hubei, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Qinghai for a 10-day on-the-spot investigation in early July. The launch ceremony of 2009 Undergraduate Summer Field Trip was held here at Tsinghua SEM on May 22, 2009.

This year's undergraduate summer field trip will focus on the current situation of medical care in Chinese rural areas. The participants will be divided into 16 teams, with research covering 16 cities/counties in areas above.

The program is launched on the occasion of the reform of China's medical care system. On April 6, Chinese government has issued a guideline on fixing the ailing health care system after over five months of debate and revision. It kicked off the long-anticipated reform to ensure health care service is more accessible and affordable to the country's 1.3 billion people.

Tsinghua SEM has been attaching great importance to students’ social practice, believing that the realization of a student's personal value should be combined with the national and social progress. In 2005, the School organized a rural investigation program with participation of all the second-year undergraduates and 190 faculty members of Tsinghua SEM. Participants conducted a 10-day research in Gansu Province on local agriculture, animal husbandry, and local financial situation. The program has received financial support from HSBC during 2006-2008.

A media center will be established this year for the program; immediate report on the process of the field trip will be available through the center then.