The final semester of Washington University’s Global MedPrep Scholars Program is at risk of being cancelled due to fears over the coronavirus outbreak which would result in a complete lack of opportunities for students to study in mainland China.

Photo by Curran Neenan

The University has offered students the opportunity to study abroad in Shanghai during the fall semester for the past 25 years. Due to increasing administrative difficulties, the program was set to end after fall 2020.

However, the program may have already had its final semester as a result of the dangerous conditions created by the coronavirus outbreak, which originated in Wuhan, China and is estimated to have affected over 60,000 people worldwide.

One of the students who was hoping to participate in the Global MedPrep Scholars Program was sophomore Jessica Huang.

“They held a meeting on Tuesday saying they were strongly considering cancelling the program due to safety concerns surrounding the spread of coronavirus,” Huang wrote in a statement to Student Life. “I was really looking forward to going, since it was a great opportunity to shadow in hospitals that practice a different form of medicine than the United States.”

Applications for the Shanghai program were due on Feb. 1. Assistant Director of Overseas Programs Carrie Canham and other study abroad faculty members announced at a Feb. 11 meeting that the decision over whether or not to cancel the program’s final semester would be made by the end of February.

Canham did not respond to requests for comment.

“Although it was very disappointing, considering the program is in a hospital setting it makes a lot of sense,” wrote Huang. “Now I just have to figure out alternate plans for studying abroad…there’s a possibility I won’t go abroad at all anymore.”

Sophomore Jeevun Kansupada disagreed with the University’s approach.

“They can begin to make plans and then cancel later should the epidemic not improve,” Kansupada wrote in a statement to Student Life. “From my point of view, February is too premature to call the trajectory of the virus until August.”

At the Feb. 11 meeting, faculty members said that it was necessary to make the decision so early because the planning process for the program typically begins in March.

The closure of the Shanghai program will not only leave a vacuum for students who wish to study in China but also for all pre-med students hoping to go abroad. The only other program open to all pre-med students takes place in France over the summer and requires students to take two years of college-level French prior to attending, which is prohibitive for students who already have a taxing pre-med course load.

MedPrep Program Director Gregory Polites declined to comment.

The Shanghai program provided a more accessible option for pre-med students. Kansupada was not originally planning to study abroad, but became interested when he learned about the Shanghai program and felt that it lined up perfectly with his goals.

“Study abroad is important because it allows us to not just visit other countries as tourists but to live in a different society as a resident, and it’s hard to find time in life to live in another country for months at a time,” Kansupada wrote. “[The Global MedPrep Scholars Program] was unique in the culture and opportunities it provided.”

Sophomore Jackie Wang, who applied to participate in the fall 2020 program was excited for the experience.

“It’s the best of both worlds to get the cultural aspects of a study abroad program but also a very unique educational opportunity shadowing different medical facilities in China, both traditional Chinese medicine and more modern hospitals,” Wang said. “I was interested in that aspect because I wanted to be exposed to a diversity of different facilities and compare them with medical facilities in the United States and other parts of the world.”

Similar to Huang and Kansupada, Wang is not sure if she will go abroad at all if the fall 2020 program is canceled, especially with so few options for pre-med students.

“I think there’s so much else to explore,” Wang said. “When you’re thinking about studying abroad, you want to be immersed in like a culture that you’re excited to learn about. It would be great if we could invest in more opportunities like this.”