University of Natal Medical School

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The University of Natal Medical School , or Durban Medical School (DMS) for short , was a dependent higher education institution in Durban for the training of medical personnel from the non-European population groups in South Africa . It was founded and operated in 1951 under the umbrella of the University of Natal .

prehistory

The first efforts to train the future medical staff from the black population group were made in Durban as early as 1921. It was a private hospital that was built by James Bennett McCord (of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions ) with the later participation of the American Alan B. Taylor in Durban-Wentworth. In this facility, mostly Zulu received medical treatment. Most of the black doctors working here had graduated in Edinburgh . In addition, a small-scale training facility was set up. The aim of the training was to achieve a qualification comparable to that of today's nursing staff . However, the school could not last as it was considered illegal by the authorities and therefore closed. Alan B. Taylor tried in the 1930s to win over Natal University College for his idea of ​​a medical education for blacks .

The establishment of the Durban Medical School was a follow-up to the higher education program for applicants from among the population of Indian origin, which had been approved in the former province of Natal since 1936 . This opening of Natal University College was thanks to the then representative of India, Kunwar Maharaj Singh , who had advocated it before the University Council in 1934. At his instigation, part-time courses were set up, starting on Friday afternoons and extending over the weekend. At that time, the King Edward VIII Hospital (KEH) was still solely responsible for the training of medical staff in the province of Natal . It was the main medical care facility for blacks and Indians in the province in 1936. At the same time, a medical training course was maintained at the University College of Fort Hare from 1937 onwards, which led to a diploma. The number of medical students of Indian origin increased considerably, which means that the anticipated decision in favor of an educational institution in Durban received further support in advance.

Finally, in 1944 , the National Health Service Commission , chaired by Henry Gluckman, determined that Durban should be the location of a medical training facility for "non-white" students.

Foundation and development

The opening of the Durban Medical School (sometimes also called Wentworth College ) took place in 1951, with 44 students (22 blacks, 20 Indians, 2 coloreds) enrolled at the same time. An “adequate previous education” was considered an admission requirement. At this time, the training began with a two-year pre-medical training course , which was followed by a five-year medical training course. The prep course was £ 60 a year and £ 70 each after that. Fifteen scholarships were made available annually by government agencies, each of which was £ 150 for the preliminary course and £ 200 for the main course. After the introduction of the new South African currency, the authority responsible for scholarships granted the following annual amounts of money, 300 rand for the preliminary course and 400 rand for the following academic years. Supporting “non-white” students with scholarships has long been a field of activity of private foundations. The State Scholarship Program of the Department of Education, Arts and Science for medical students at Durban Medical School was the only major state program of its kind in South Africa at the time.

Before it was put into operation, the question of public funding of medical training for applicants from the black population received a lot of attention in the specialist discussion and in the political discourse. The urgency of this was clearly evident in view of the small number of black doctors. This position was emphatically represented by the principal of Natal University , Ernst Gideon Malherbe . The government's declined granting of medical school grants at the University of the Witwatersrand was criticized because it aimed to attract black students to the new Durban Medical School and thus discourage them from enrolling at other universities. The education deficit was publicly admitted in 1962 by the administrator of the Natal Province, Theodor Gerdener . In a speech he pointed out that there are 8,000 white doctors practicing in South Africa who treat "non-white" patients in half their working hours and that there are only 120 "non-white" doctors nationwide. According to SM Naude, chairman of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research , there were only 20 black doctors practicing on reservations of their population group in 1966. The domestic situation was exacerbated by the fact that some people from the small group of graduates decided to take up a professional position abroad because they were unable to find a comparable job because of apartheid in South Africa. Specifically, a management function via white employees was excluded for black graduates.

In 1975 YK Seedat was the first black person to be elected to the Federal Council of the Medical Association of South Africa (German: " Federal Council of the Medical Association of South Africa "). At the time he was working as a Senior Lecturer at Durban Medical School . Between 1978 and 1994, Seedat was Professor and Head of Medicine at the University of Natal Medical School .

In the address given by the Minister for National Education, Sport and Recreation, Piet Koornhof , to the South African Parliament on February 10, 1976, he took stock of the effectiveness of the Durban Medical School . According to this, 8.316 million rand had been spent on running costs since its inception. By the end of 1975, 46 Colored students, 350 Indian-born and 199 black students had graduated here. Now, however, a fundamental change should be made in the medical education sector for “non-white” people, as a result of which a new Medical University ( MEDUNSA ) is to be founded. A law served for this purpose, the Medical University of Southern Africa Act ( Act No. 78/1976 ), the aim of which was to create a new training facility exclusively for black ( Bantu national unit ) doctors at the industrial settlement of Ga-Rankuwa . The University of Natal Medical School should only be available to people of Indian origin in the future. There was protest against these plans. On October 29, 1977, a nationally recognized student strike took place at the University of Natal Medical School against the proposed expiry of black student enrollment at the facility. From their circle it was also clearly articulated that the multiethnic composition did not create any tension in everyday life, the contrary claim was a “deception of apartheid”. The technical and academic staff basically backed most of the student demands, but declined to block ongoing academic activities in this regard. A delegation from the university met with the national education minister for a discussion, as a result of which he promised some concessions.

Through the Minister of National Education , the South African parliament learned of the government's plans to allow white applicants to enroll at the University of Natal Medical School . The dean of the institution publicly stated that black applicants would continue to be accepted in 1979.

The University of Natal Medical School was renamed Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine in 2000 on the occasion of its 50th anniversary . Since 2004 it has been an institution of the University of KwaZulu-Natal .

Well-known graduates

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b SAIRR : A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1976 . Johannesburg 1977, pp. 383-384
  2. ^ Vanessa Noble: "The Politics of Memory and Memory of Politics": Remembering and Silencing in Written and Oral Narratives about the University of Natal's Medical School . on www.scnc.ukzn.ac.za (English)
  3. ↑ B. Rambiritch: A Brief Review of Indian Education in Natal . University College for Indians, Durban 1962, online at www.scnc.ukzn.ac.za, PDF document p. 4, see: University of Durban-Westville Documentation Center: Medical school history
  4. ^ The Medical School's History . on www.scnc.ukzn.ac.za (English)
  5. ↑ James B. McCord, John Scott Douglas: My patients were Zulus . Muller, London 1951
  6. ↑ Daniel J. Ncayiyana: McCord Hospital: a century of footprints on the sands of time . In: South African Medical Journal, Vol. 99 (2009), No. 7, online at www.scielo.org.za (English)
  7. ↑ a b c Chris van Rensburg (Red.) Et al., Euridita Publications Ltd. (Ed.): Keys to Progress. Education for South Africa's blacks, mixed race and Indians . Johannesburg [1975], pp. 145-146
  8. ^ A b c J. V. Robbs: History of the Department of Surgery, Nelson R. Mandela School of Medicine, University of KwaZulu-Natal . In: South African Journal of Surgery, Vol. 43, No. 4, 2005, pp. 154–157, online at www.ajol.info (English)
  9. ↑ Shula Marks: Social Justice or Grandiose Scheme ?: The 1944 National Health Services Commission (the Gluckman Commission) Revisited . at www.wiser.wits.ac.za (English)
  10. ^ A b SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations 1948-1949 . Johannesburg [1950], p. 57
  11. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1961 . Johannesburg 1962, p. 261
  12. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1962 . Johannesburg 1963, p. 200
  13. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations 1948-1949 . Johannesburg [1950], p. 46
  14. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1966 . Johannesburg 1967, p. 278
  15. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1969 . Johannesburg 1970, p. 235
  16. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1975 . Johannesburg 1976, p. 271
  17. ↑ UKZNOnline: UKZN Emeritus Professor of Medicine Receives International Award . In: UKZNOnline Vol. 6 Issue 53, on www.enewsletter.ukzn.ac.za (English)
  18. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1977 . Johannesburg 1978, p. 544
  19. ^ SAIRR: A Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1978 . Johannesburg 1979, p. 577