Should China Expand Its Medical Education Scale? - Evidence From Comparative Research - Policy recommendations for future adjustments

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk

This study compares doctor staffing levels and the scale of medical education in China with those in other countries, using a literature review and descriptive analysis. In 2018, China had 1.98 medical doctors per 1,000 people and ranked 85th among WHO member states; in 2017 it had 1.99 practicing doctors per 1,000 people and 10.28 medical graduates per 100,000. China also has fewer medical schools than the global average, yet medical school enrollment is higher than average. The findings support expanding admissions while controlling students per school and reducing low-quality schools.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages14

Reading Time35 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Purpose

Design/Approach/Methods

Findings

Originality/Value

Introduction

Doctors and national health

The role of medical education scale

Medical education development in China

Should China Expand Its Medical Education Scale? Evidence From Comparative Research Jianlin Hou (侯建林), Kaiju Liao (廖凯举), Peng Liao (廖鹏), Weimin Wang (王维民), Ana Xie (谢阿娜), and Yang Ke (柯杨) Peking University Health Science Center ECNU Review of Education 2023, Vol. 6(2) 280–293 © The Author(s) 2022 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[DOI: 10.1177/20965311221141450](DOI: 10.1177/20965311221141450)[ ](DOI: 10.1177/20965311221141450)[journals.sagepub.com/home/roe](journals.sagepub.com/home/roe) Abstract Purpose: This study compares doctor stafﬁng level and the scale of medical education in China with those of other countries and proposes policy recommendations for future adjustments to the scale of China’s medical education. Design/Approach/Methods: This study employs a literature review and descriptive analysis. Findings: China had 1.98 medical doctors per 1,000 people in 2018, ranking 85th out of the 193 member-states of the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2017, China had 1.99 practicing doctors per 1,000 people, only ranking above Turkey (1.88) in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. China had only 10.28 medical graduates per 100,000 people—placing in the bottom third of OECD countries. China’s provision of 1.4 medical schools per 10 million people was also signiﬁcantly lower than the global average (3.9). However, the average number of students enrolled in medical schools (509) in China was signiﬁcantly higher than the global average (160). Originality/Value: Although the scale of admission in undergraduate medical education must be expanded in China, this needs to be achieved while controlling the average number of medical students per school and reducing enrollment in low-quality medical schools. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish new medical schools while improving the operating level of existing ones. Corresponding author: Yang Ke, School of Clinical Oncology, Peking University Health Science Center, Beijing 100142, China. Email: [keyang@bjmu.edu.cn](keyang@bjmu.edu.cn) Creative Commons Non Commercial CC BY-NC: This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License ([https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/)) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as speciﬁed on the SAGE and Open Access page ([https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage](https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage)). Keywords China, doctors, international comparisons, medical school, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, scale of education Date received: 24 December 2020; revised: 31 May 2021, 13 December 2021; accepted: 18 January 2022 Introduction The global pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, has revealed the vital role of doctors in maintaining national health and safety, underscoring the need to incorporate a medical workforce as part of national strategy. As a core component of human resources for health, doctors have a signiﬁcant impact on the realization of comprehensive health. A discrepancy in the number of doctors—whether a shortage or a surplus—results in an increase in the cost of medical and health (M&H) services (Schefﬂer & Arnold, 2019) . Indeed, a shortage of doctors affects the accessibility of M&H services and increases transportation and time costs for patients seeking medical care, thereby hindering the ability of M&H services to meet demands (Wu, 2018) . In contrast, an oversupply of doctors indicates the poor utilization of limited resources for medical education (ME) and may result in low efﬁciency among doctors and the wastage of M&H resources. The scale of ME (S-ME)—that is, the number of medical sc

FAQs

What question does the study address about China’s medical education scale?

It evaluates whether China should expand the scale of medical education by comparing doctor staffing levels and educational scale with other countries.

How does the study assess doctor staffing and medical education scale?

It uses a literature review and descriptive analysis to compare metrics such as doctors per 1,000 people, medical graduates per 100,000, and numbers of medical schools and enrolled students.

What policy recommendations follow from the findings?

While undergraduate admission should be expanded, the study emphasizes controlling average students per school, reducing enrollment in low-quality medical schools, and establishing new medical schools while improving the operation level of existing ones.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by hdkawk