ABSTRACT
With a developmental history of more than a decade, health administration education in China has resulted in the cultivation of large numbers of health administrators and played a positive role in promoting health reform in China. The paper reports a Sino Australian jointly sponsored training program in health administration and gives an account of the development, implementation and features of the program. The authors hold that the design of the program is innovative, as it well integrates Western theories of and experiences in health administration with Chinese realities, particularly the ongoing practice of health reform. The program attaches importance not only to improving the theoretical level of health administrators, but also to cultivating abilities to solve practical problems in management, to developing strategies for active involvement in the waves of the reform, and to nurturing the spirit of lifelong learning and exploration in light of the challenges facing health administrators. The program is an attempt at a new mode of health administration education in China.