OVERVIEW

The Faculty was established in 1985 with the introduction of MBChB programme. At this time, the Department of Nursing which was already operating under the Faculty of Economic Sciences, was relocated.
The Faculty of Health Sciences has its headquarters at Mthatha Campus but has an academic health service complex that spreads throughout the Eastern Cape Province including Mthatha, East London Hospital, Port Elizabeth, about 15 district hospitals mainly in the North Eastern Region of the Eastern Cape and seven community health centres.
The teaching platform is further enhanced by the establishment of Health Resource Centres at Mthatha, East London, Port Elizabeth and Queenstown which creates an academic environment throughout the Eastern Cape Province so that students are taught properly by joint staff that has access to library and internet facilities, to enable the functions of an academic institution to be fulfilled adequately.
 The Faculty has three areas of specialisation:

– Medicine
– Nursing
– Allied Health Professions.
The research niche areas are:

Basic Sciences: Human Nutrition, Medicinal Plants & Traditional Medicine
Clinical Sciences: Clinical Epidemiology, Chronic Diseases including Tuberculosis, Asthma, Cardiac Diseases, HIV & AIDS from Health Promotion and Prevention including HIV Vaccine Testing to Monitoring and Evaluation of HIV & AIDS Management including ARVs
Public Health: The Burden of Disease, Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, Health Systems Research, Health Informatics
Medical Education: Problem-based Education, Community-based Education, Service-Learning.
Although information has been compiled as accurately as possible, the Council and Senate of WSU accept no responsibility for errors and omissions. WSU reserves the right to make any necessary alterations to this content as and when the need arises.