HKUMed Undergraduate Prospectus

DEVELOPMENT OF THE FACULTY The Medical Faculty of The University of Hong Kong is the longest established faculty in the tertiary education of Hong Kong. Created out of the Hong Kong College of Medicine, which was founded in 1887 as the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese, the Faculty was accorded the position of premier faculty when the University opened in 1912. For 130 years, the Faculty and its predecessors have been fostering the development of Western medicine and biomedical science in the East and playing a pioneering role in medical education and training. A faithful chronicle would be necessary to pay tribute to the many great men and women and the generous benefactors who helped to shape and build this Faculty, and the list would inevitably begin with Dr. Sun Yat Sen, who was one of the first two graduates in 1892 of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese. Hong Kong is almost totally dependent on local medical graduates for its health care services. Until the establishment of the second medical school in 1981, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, Pathology, Pharmacology and Pharmacy, Psychiatry, and Surgery, and the 4 schools are School of Biomedical Sciences, School of Chinese Medicine, School of Nursing and School of Public Health. Our teaching is also assisted by about 3,000 honorary teachers, most of whom are doctors in public hospitals or private practitioners. The Faculty has emerged as a leader in medical and healthcare education in Asia. In 1997, we took the lead to reform our MBBS programme and we are the first medical school in Asia that adopts a system-based curriculum using student-centred and problem-based learning approach, an approach that has been serving very well our dual aims of equipping students with skills and knowledge, and helping them to develop into humane and ethical healthcare professionals. Our curriculum has set a standard for the region, with other disciplines and institutions following our lead. The educational reform in 2012 has brought in new insights in the restructuring of our undergraduate programmes. The “extra-year” is being used to expose students to disciplines and areas of study outside their own professional core and to allow greater flexibility for them to engage in enriching learning experience through overseas exchange. In 2016, an “Enrichment Year” in Year 3 of the medical curriculum has been introduced to push medical and health sciences education to new frontiers, whereby students may opt to pursue an additional degree, broadening coursework or experiential learning at HKU as well as outside of Hong Kong at leading institutions and settings worldwide. The Faculty has consistently been ranked as one of the top 3 in Asia in the category “Clinical, Pre-clinical and Health Universities” of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings. Alice Memorial Hospital on Hollywood Road which housed the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese established in 1887 (left) and the medical complex of the Faculty at 21 Sassoon Road now (right) Lecture Theatre in Li Shu Fan Building (1960s) (left) and 130 Lecture Theatre in William MW Mong Block now (right) Students doing laboratory practical in 1960s (left) and 2010s (right) Anatomy class in 1960s (left) and 2010s (right) our Faculty had been the only institute providing medical graduates in Hong Kong. Today, the standard of health of the people of Hong Kong is comparable to any developed country in the world. This is, to a large measure, due to the efforts of our graduates made in a century. From its modest beginning with only a few candidates, the annual enrollment of undergraduate students now stands at about 560 for its six full-time programmes of Bachelor of Medicine & Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS), Bachelor of Nursing (BNurs), Bachelor of Chinese Medicine (BChinMed), Bachelor of Pharmacy (BPharm), Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (BBiomedSc) and Bachelor of Arts and Sciences in Global Health and Development [BASc(GHD)]. Teaching is well-supported by more than 390 full-time teaching staff coming from the 14 departments and 4 schools of the Faculty. The 14 departments are Anaesthesiology, Clinical Oncology, Diagnostic Radiology, Family Medicine and Primary Care, Medicine, Microbiology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, 1 3 2 4 1 2 3 4 9 8