Brief History

The UNSW Faculty of Medicine was conceived in 1957 when the State Government-commissioned Murray Report recognised that a second medical school to supplement overloaded facilities at Sydney University was required. On December 18, 1957, the NSW Minister for Health, Mr Sheahan, announced a pre-medical school would be built at UNSW, formerly the NSW University of Technology, and an act of State Parliament was subsequently passed to extend the objects of the University to include instruction and research in medicine. The preliminary wheels had been set in motion and, in November, five foundation chairs – anatomy, medicine, pathology, physiology and surgery – were approved by the University Council.

In 1959, Prince Henry Hospital became the University’s first teaching hospital and, the following May, Professor F.F. Rundle was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. University Council formally established the Faculty in July 1960.
The first group of 75 students enrolled in the UNSW medical course in 1961 and, in the same year, the Royal Hospital for Women, Paddington, was made a teaching hospital in obstetrics and gynaecology. Over the next couple of years, St George Hospital, Kogarah, and St Vincent’s Hospital, Darlinghurst, joined the list of the University’s teaching hospitals. In 1962, a Postgraduate Committee was formed and a joint fund set up between the University and Prince of Wales/Prince Henry Hospitals to support research and postgraduate instruction in medicine.

Five years later, in February 1967, degrees of Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery were awarded to 25 students at the University's first medical graduation ceremony on February 10. At the tenth graduation ceremony in 1976, 175 students were awarded degrees, bringing the total number of UNSW medical graduates to 966.

The 1970s

By 1970, the Faculty of Medicine had reached full enrolment, with 895 students. In the same year, a new clinical school at St George Hospital and an undergraduate teaching block at the Royal Hospital for Women, called Frank Rundle House, were opened. The Centre for Medical Education Research and Development, including a Regional Teacher Training Centre for Health Personnel sponsored by the World Health Organisation and the Commonwealth Government, was also established on campus. Professor Rundle took became Director of this facility the year after it opened and was replaced by Professor R.J. Walsh as Dean.

A decision was undertaken to into introduce a five-year undergraduate course in 1974 and, in 1979, a record 363 students – the first of the five-year group and last of the six-year group - graduated with Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees.

The 1980s

In 1982, Professor R.J. Walsh retired as Dean of the Faculty and Professor W. R. Pitney was appointed as his replacement. The following year, affiliation of the University with the Garvan Institute of Medical Research was approved and the Centre for Immunology was established within the Faculty.

The 25th anniversary of the medical school was celebrated in May 1984, with a scientific meeting and reunion of ex-students and staff.

Professor R.W. Pitney retired as Dean in 1985 and was succeeded by Professor W.E. Glover, who had previously been Head of the School of Physiology and Pharmacology.

In 1988 the undergraduate course had been expanded to a 6 year course again. This allowed for an easier pace of studies in the pre-clinical years and an additional year of clinical experience prior to commencing internship.

The 1990s

By the early 1990s the South Western Sydney Clinical School had been established. While located at Liverpool Hospital, it also included Fairfield, and Bankstown-Lidcombe Hospitals.

The 1990s have also seen an increase in both rural teaching and in the intake of indigenous and rural students into the undergraduate course. The establishment of a Rural Health Unit within the School of Public Health and Community Medicine has aided this. And with the creation of the School of Rural Health (formerly Greater Murray Clinical School) in 2000, UNSW Medicine seems set to consolidate the place of rural health in the curriculum.

The New Millenium

In 2004, the Faculty of Medicine introduced an entirely new six-year undergraduate Medicine program. The Program is highly integrated both horizontally and vertically. All courses are interdisciplinary: biomedical sciences are integrated with one another and with the social and psychological sciences. The scientific basis of medicine and clinical experience go hand in hand throughout all years of the program.

With the retirement of Professor Glover at the start of 1998, leadership of the Faculty was taken over by Professor S. Bruce Dowton until his resignation in early 2005. Our current Dean is Professor Peter Smith.