The Degree
The qualification offered is a six-year, MBChB degree (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) that will produce graduates who fulfil the Health Professional Council of South Africa (HPCSA) graduate attributes and who, on qualification, are competent to work as interns in a South African hospital. Medical Programme Director Dr Reno Morar will continue the legacy left by Prof Pepeta in leading the Medical School to produce fit-for-purpose graduates who can contribute to the Eastern Cape and South Africa's priority health care needs.
Innovative teaching model
The University will be using an innovative, transformative, distributive teaching model with an emphasis on comprehensive primary health care as well as a focus on leveraging the benefits of technology to deliver effective health professions education. In addition an interprofessional approach that will see students come together to study across health science disciplines towards their service to society, especially within the metro is being developed.
The transformative interprofessional education model (IPE) will see doctors work and study alongside nurses, radiographers, psychologists, environmental health practitioners, pharmacists, emergency medical care students and the like, to offer holistic and integrated health care. The late Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health Science, Professor Lungile Pepeta, introduced the transformative model with great success with both students and the communities benefitting from the ongoing partnerships.
The Faculty’s health care ethos includes an emphasis on preventative and promotive, in addition to curative, healthcare.