Medical school dean steps down

PROFESSOR Richard Hift has stepped aside from the role of Dean and Head of School of Clinical Medicine at UKZN, where he has made a significant contribution to improving delivery of the school in the areas of human capital development, knowledge generation and impact on society.

Two weeks ago, the university’s SRC embarked on strike action and called for Professor Hift be removed, however, the university’s executive director of corporate relations, Lesiba Seshoka said Professor Hift’s stepping aside had nothing to do with the students’protest action.

According to Seshoka, Professor Hift’s focus will now be directed to improving National Health Delivery outcomes in the Medical Sciences.

“The College of Health Sciences leads the country in thinking around a range of key challenges, and Professor Hift has been at the forefront of generating the ideas, and turning these into implementation,” said Seshoka.

Seshoka said the College of Health Sciences was fortunate to have someone of Professor Hift’s capacity to be able to contribute to achieving transformation of Health training to meet the needs of human resources for health outcomes.

The university has been plagued by allegations of corruption in the enrolment process at the medical school which was exposed by the Sunday Tribune in June this year. This led to the university’s executive management appointing independent forensic auditors KPMG to investigate.