Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Head of College
Throughout South Africa there is a need to optimize service delivery and increase the number of Health Care Professionals (HCP) in all cadres across the health spectrum. The province of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) as a rural province and with a huge burden of disease, has a specific need for service delivery which should ideally support clinical training. The principles for supporting the National Health Insurance (NHI) by following a Primary Health Care (PHC) approach has been accepted by UKZN and the KZN Department of Health (DoH) for training of all HCPs. The KZN DoH and College of Health Sciences (CHS) of UKZN have developed a decentralized clinical training approach to enhance clinical training to be relevant to the South African context.
As such, it is compulsory for all our College of Health Sciences students to serve in our Decentralised Clinical Training sites (Port Shepstone, Madadeni, Empangeni, Newcastle, Stanger, Pietermaritzburg as well as a range of hospitals in deep rural areas such as the Church of Scotland and Bethesda hospitals.
These are exciting times as we – KZN DOH and CHS UKZN as partners – move forward to make history that will change clinical training in South Africa and ensure that our students are best equipped or their professional career as Health Care Professionals. Welcome to the College of Health Sciences. We are a progressive, caring, ethical and socially responsive College underpinned by the principles of universal healthcare and excellent scholarship.
Our college currently consists of two Schools namely:
Our mission is to be a socially responsive college providing a holistic experience of excellence in health professions education, research, innovation, entrepreneurship, community and stakeholder engagement and health services.
We are underpinned by key values including:
Respect WITH CARE.
Excellence WITH ENTHUSIASM.
Accountability WITH ETHICS.
Client Orientation WITH INCLUSIVE DIVERSITY.
Honesty WITH INTEGRITY
Trust
We are a caring college, that advocates for social justice and excellence.
