ABSTRACT
In the medical education curriculum of the School of Medicine, University of Tsukuba, an interprofessional education （IPE） program has been implemented from the first through fifth academic years as the core program in the “Essentials for Medical Professionals” course. From immediately after admission to the start of clinical training in the senior year, students have many opportunities to interact with a variety of health professionals and to systematically develop competence for interprofessional work.<br> The School of Medicine and Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba, consists of the School of Medicine, the School of Nursing, and the School of Medical Sciences. We have step-by-step IPE programs: students from 2 or more professions learn with, from, and about each other. In the first academic year early exposure to IPE is provided by team discussions of students from the 3 schools. In the second academic year the IPE program uses team-based learning （TBL）. In the third academic year, the Care Colloquium （a teamwork training course） is provided. The TBL program and the Care Colloquium are conducted though interuniversity collaboration with the Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences and with the Tokyo University of Science, respectively. One strategy to improve the effectiveness of the IPE program is interuniversity collaboration with the participation of a larger number of professions.