The College of Health Sciences, commonly known as the Medical School, was initially established in 1963, under the auspices of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom. The College of Health Sciences has undergone significant growth and expansion. It is the leading training institution for health professionals in Zimbabwe. It currently offers degree programmes in Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, Nursing Science, Medical Laboratory Sciences, Rehabilitation, Radiology and Health Education & Health Promotion. An Institute of Continuing Health Education in the College caters for the specialist postgraduate training and continuing health education needs for all health professionals.
The College has two campuses: the “College of Health Sciences on Campus” is situated at the University of Zimbabwe, Main Campus in the Mount Pleasant area. This houses the School of Pharmacy and the pre-clinical departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry and Physiology, a Cabinet Making Workshop and Electron Microscope Unit.
The second College of Health Sciences campus is situated at the Parirenyatwa Hospital grounds, Mazowe Street. Teaching hospital facilities for all clinical departments are available at the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and Harare Central Hospitals. The clinical departments in this campus are supported by the following units: Drug & Toxicology Information Service, Multi-Disciplinary Teaching Laboratories, Multimedia Resource Centre, Mechanical and Electron Workshops. Limited student accommodation is also available at the Parirenyatwa Campus.
The College has a number of good training facilities at the Main Campus, the Parirenyatwa Hospital complex and Harare Central Hospital. At the Main Campus, there are a number of large and state of the art laboratories, a 140 seater and two 200-seater lecture theatres – one of them is fitted with virtual lecture facilities.
At the Parirenyatwa Hospital Campus, the Health Sciences Building comprises of offices, a modern Multimedia Resource Centre, tutorial rooms, a 160 capacity laboratory, two modern 108 capacity lecture theatres each, several small group teaching seminar rooms and a histology museum. Clinical teaching takes place at Harare and Parirenyatwa Central Hospitals. Each teaching hospital has about 1200 beds.