Delegates met on the Westville campus.

UKZN recently hosted a joint meeting of the South African Committee of Health Sciences Deans (SACOHSD), the Committee of Medical Deans and the Committee of Dental Deans to deliberate on matters in health sciences higher education.

Professor Salim Abdool Karim, Director for the Centre for the AIDS Programme of Research in South Africa (CAPRISA) and President of the Medical Research Council (MRC), presented his proposal for the revitalization of the MRC which was strongly endorsed by the meeting which also confirmed its support to the Academy of Sciences of South Africa to implement of the Lancet Report on Training Health Professionals for the 21st Century.

There was also robust discussion on the successes and challenges of the Clinical Training Grant together with the Infrastructure and Efficiency Grant from the perspective of the Deans as well as the Department of Higher Education and Training represented by Ms Brenda Swart and Mr Temwa Moyo.

UKZN has held the Chairmanship of the SACOHSD from its inception 2008.

Professor Sabiha Essack, as co-founder and chair has been instrumental in the recognition of the Committee as a co-aligned community of practice by Higher Education South Africa (HESA), its role in expanding the clinical training grant to cover a wider range of health professional disciplines, its advocacy for the 240 credit diploma to facilitate the training of mid-level workers and its successful  national conferences on rehabilitation professionals within the public sector in 2011 and training health care professionals for the 21st century in 2012.

Essack is currently the Dean and Head of the School of Health Sciences at UKZN.