Veterinary student exchange program broadens horizons

This is Shusaku Yamada's first visit to the United States. He and eight other Japanese veterinary students and their faculty mentor are visiting the Purdue School of Veterinary Medicine for a two-week session of learning and sharing that ends today. Purdue and Kitasato University in Towada, Japan, began a cooperative arrangement with each other in 1995 allowing exchange students from Japan to come visit each year and a Purdue veterinary faculty member to go to Kitasato. "I want to study really hard," said Yamada, who is in his fifth year of a six-year program, after observing clinical rotations of Purdue students for almost two weeks.

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"The students have a lot of knowledge. I think they study more and are more independent than students in Japan."

Fellow student Ami Okino explained, "We don't get to do stuff before we get a license." Japanese veterinary students only observe their teachers drawing blood, giving injections and meeting with patients' owners, without participating, until they receive their licenses.

An exchange of ideas is the main purpose the universities set up the program, according to Abdelfattah Nour, director of the program and associate professor of basic medical sciences in Purdue's School of Veterinary Medicine. "It is a window to Japanese research."

While America is more advanced in veterinary medicine than Japan, the Japanese are doing research in areas that the United States is not, Nour said.

Japanese professor Kazumi Taniguchi gave a lecture Wednesday on taste buds. Her research could be important in making medicines more palatable.

Taniguchi is the first female professor to participate in the exchange. She is one of only two women of 55 professors from Kitasato.

During her two-week stay, Taniguchi, whose specialty is anatomy, has looked at many different techniques and research areas of various professors.

She was especially pleased with the spirit of giving and sharing she found among the faculty. "They didn't hesitate to teach me or show me anything." she said.

Purdue is exploring the possibility of offering distance learning to Kitasato where Japanese students will be able to take Purdue courses online and possibly even earn a veterinary technician degree.

"The whole veterinary education is different from the way of Japan," said Okino. That's why she decided it was important for her to participate in the exchange program.

"I wanted to see everything and ask what I want to know."