Special communication: China’s first historic efforts to develop a tobacco control advocacy workforce via schools of public health

This paper provides an overview of a recent 18-month project which set out for the first time to introduce training on tobacco control into the curricula of public health courses in Chinese universities. The aim was to produce graduates with appropriate knowledge and skills to be effective in advocating for policies that could lead to the reduction of tobacco use. Results from this initial project involving seven universities have been encouraging and the new curriculum is to be implemented, with some changes, on a wider scale throughout China. Each of the universities also successfully introduced a smoke-free campus policy and the aim is to extend this policy.