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Head of School: Prof Nicholas Pearce

One of South Africa’s foremost medical schools

Since the early 1970s when it opened, the School of Medicine has consistently been one of South Africa’s foremost medical schools, and is both nationally and internationally renowned for its training curriculum and the excellence of the medical and medical physics graduates it produces. Situated predominantly in the beautiful Francois Retief Building, and with a clinical training platform that includes all of Universitas, National and Pelonomi Tertiary Hospitals, as well as a host of other regional hospitals and clinics throughout the Free State, the School of Clinical Medicine has always attracted a large number of high-calibre applicants for its courses from across South Africa and indeed internationally.

A vibrant, dynamic, innovative environment for learning and working

The academic teaching staff in the clinical academic departments are highly regarded academics and clinicians, with a large number of staff being internationally recognised for their

• research output
• academic profiles
• clinical training skills

In addition, a large and highly skilled administrative staff team ensures effective operational management of the training courses and provides an optimal experience for the students during their time studying in the School of Clinical Medicine. A wide range of ancillary support structures are available for students and staff to improve their general and academic skills – from leadership training courses to life skills training, psychological support, and basic research skills training – all of which create a vibrant, dynamic, innovative environment for learning and working.

Quality improvements to our estates and clinical training platform capacity

In the last few years a number of quality enhancements were made to our estates and clinical training platform capacity.

• The School of Medicine was divided into three schools:
  • Biomedical sciences
  • Clinical Medicine  
  • Pathology
• The development of state-of-the-art teaching and learning facilities in the new James Moroka Building with extension of lecture theatres to accommodate big classrooms from 2018.
• The new Muller Potgieter Building hosts the student administration teams, including the offices of the three heads of schools and the division Undergraduate Medical Programme Management and the MB ChB Programme Director.
• A magnificent clinical skills and clinical simulation laboratory that would not be out of place in any top ten medical school worldwide is now operational and used for student training.
• A brand new state of the art anatomy building and dissection facilities were built during 2014 and opened for use during the 2015 academic year.
• In order to increase the exposure of our students to community-based education, facilities and clinical training structures have been built and developed at a number of training sites across the Free State and Northern Cape, including Trompsburg, the Qwaqwa Campus, and Kimberley, amongst others.

Research as a strategic priority

Research as a strategic priority has also been developed over the last few years, and there has been a significant increase in research outputs; this research focus and productivity will be supported and developed in the time ahead in order to maintain and enhance the School of Clinical Medicine’s international reputation and academic esteem. A number of international collaborative links with other universities and researchers has been developed, which will both enhance the school’s teaching, research and clinical practice, and assist with developing and incorporating the most up-to-date trends and practices in all of learning and teaching, research, and clinical platforms.

The time ahead

In the time ahead the School of Clinical Medicine aims to work hard on developing its business and practice that needs attention: in particular that of its student and staff demographic profile; its third-stream income generation; short course development; research productivity; partner relationship optimisation; its human resources and management practices in order to ensure it maintains its national and international status; and to create redundancy in its business practice.

With the strong management team and high-calibre staff currently present in the School of Medicine, and the excellent clinical academic work that occurs in each of its departments, one can predict exciting times ahead for the School of Medicine as it works to produce the highest calibre of students, in a research-rich and intellectually rigorous environment, inclusive of everyone, and that is an exciting place to work at as it produces the next generation of highly skilled clinicians and medical physicists.