Brief History about College of Health Sciences
About the College
Since inception in 1972, the College of Health Sciences (then Faculty of Health Sciences) has made major contributions to the supply of highly trained medical graduates especially to the Nigerian health sector. Formerly instituted in the then University of Ife in 1971 as the Faculty of Health Sciences, the College has expanded into a Collegiate System formally approved by the University’s Senate in 1995 and comprises three Faculties and one Institute. Over the years, the College has enjoyed the service of senior faculty members who are committed to its core aims. The educational and administrative policy of the College fully embraces the traditional tripod of education, research and service with greater emphasis placed on service. To this end, faculty members have done more than just teaching. They have improved health care through novel roles as scholars and physicians. They have also helped developed new and improved curricula and educational models that address emerging needs in the health sector. Coupled with affiliation agreement with one of the prominent hospital unit in the country, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile-Ife (then Ife University Teaching Hospitals Complex), the College has produced over 5000 empathetic medical practitioners, nurses and dentists who are effective health team players and can assume and play leadership roles in health care delivery through the efficient application of their expertise. The College is undaunted in its aim to train health care personnel who can work as a team, provide comprehensive health care to individuals in any community (urban or rural); and be up-to-date on issues of global health relevance.
Inception
With the aim of improving health care delivery, the then Faculty of Health Sciences was formally instituted in the then University of Ife in 1971 after three years of careful planning and in response to the demand of the Government of the then Western State of Nigeria in 1967 for the establishment of a Medical School in the State. In 1967, a Planning Committee of the University of Ife Senate was constituted. This comprised of representatives from the Federal Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Health of the Western State Government, the Faculties of Medicine of the Universities of Ibadan and Lagos, and the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Ife. The objective of the Committee was to develop an educational programme for the medical school that could primarily address the health needs of the Western State. While the educational and administrative policy of the Faculty fully embraces the traditional tripod of education, research and service, it places more emphasis on service than is usual among other Nigerian Faculties of medicine.
Establishment
An International Working Party comprising representatives of the Inter-University Council and Nigerians who served on the Planning Committee of the University of Ife Senate met in January 1971 to prepare a final report for Senate which recommendations the University Senate endorsed. The Faculty was formally inauguration on the 8 May, 1972 with Professor T. A. I. Grillo, of blessed memory, as its foundation Dean. During a meeting in 1971, it was decided that the Faculty’s teaching hospitals would comprise a central primary hospital with a conglomerate of other state hospitals. With time, the clinical training facilities became consolidated in two main hospital – Ife Hospital Unit and Wesley Guild hospital, while community health services and training take place at Comprehensive Health Centre Imesi-Ile, Urban Comprehensive Health Centre, Ile-Ife and Multipurpose Health Centre, Ilesa, with the main dental hospital existing in the College.
First fruits
Foundation students were admitted into the Faculty in September 1972, though a group of prospective Health Sciences students had been admitted for the University Preliminary Courses in the Faculty of Sciences in September 1971.
Management and administration
Foundation students were admitted into the Faculty in September 1972, though a group of prospective Health Sciences students had been admitted for the University Preliminary Courses in the Faculty of Sciences in September 1971.