Abstract: In the context of the Healthy China Initiative, health-related public welfare practice has become an important approach to cultivating medical postgraduates in the new era. To address current problems in such practice, including insufficient value identification, inadequate management mechanisms, and suboptimal activity quality, Xiangya School of Basic Medicine Sciences at Central South University has explored the construction of a practical education system from four aspects: focusing on the fundamental task of fostering virtue through education, expanding public welfare practice platforms, innovating the content and forms of practices, and optimizing management and incentive mechanisms. A questionnaire survey of 328 postgraduate students who participated in health-related public welfare practices showed that 97.3% (319/328) believed that these activities had deepened their understanding of public health needs, and 76.8% (252/328) reported that their communication skills had been improved. Furthermore, the School has produced a National ″100 Exemplary Graduate Student Party Branches″ in Chinese Universities and a group of outstanding student representatives serving in border and grassroots areas. It was awarded the National Outstanding Team in the ″Three Going-Down″ Social Practice, and its life education science popularization brand has served over 40 000 members of the public. Practice has shown that this pathway effectively promotes the improvement of postgraduate students′ professional competence and sense of social responsibility, providing valuable insights and references for the high-quality development of medical postgraduate education in the new era.

Key words: Education, medical, graduate, Healthy China, Health-related public welfare, Practical education, Pathways, Reflections