A Comparison of Anatomy Education in a Large Chinese Medical School and a Small Korean Medical School

SUMMARY: At the Southern Medical University in China, 600 medical students study macroscopic anatomy (briefly, anatomy), whereas at Ajou University in Korea, only 50 medical students study anatomy. Because of the significant difference in student numbers, the educational situations are quite dissimilar. The purpose of this study was to suggest desirable anatomy education in the large and small classes. For that purpose, the teaching of anatomy in the participating Chinese and Korean universities was compared. Subsequently, best practices and recommendations for the large and small classes were gathered from questionnaire surveys from the medical students (30 Chineses and 48 Koreans) and anatomists (12 Chinese and 2 Korean). Best practices noted were encouraging one another, while each group’s recommendations were instructive to its counterpart. Considering these findings can help to guide the progress of students’ learning and the corresponding anatomists’ activity. This report provides useful information to other anatomists who instruct large or small numbers of students.