Public Health, Chinese Medicine, Nursing, and Biomedical Sciences

This article is part of Module 11 Medicine/Hospitals in the “HKU Wild History” series, within the “School Cluster” chapter. Within the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine, alongside the School of Clinical Medicine, there are four “non-clinical” schools — the School of Public Health, School of Chinese Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Biomedical Sciences. This article traces their histories, programmes, and research strengths one by one, with the Public Health school’s role as a WHO Collaborating Centre receiving particular attention; for a complete institutional history of the School of Nursing, see the dedicated article school-of-nursing-history.md.

For an overview of the Faculty’s structure, see ./li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md; for the research strengths of clinical departments, see ./departments-and-strengths.md. This module belongs to the 00–12 reference zone and does not carry a credibility badge; neutral academic achievements are recorded as stated. Data current as of June 2026.

# 1. Overview

Together with the School of Clinical Medicine, these four schools constitute the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine’s complete “clinical – population – basic” disciplinary spectrum: the School of Clinical Medicine handles bedside diagnostic and treatment teaching, the School of Public Health approaches health from population and policy scales, the School of Biomedical Sciences delves deeply into basic laboratory science, and Chinese Medicine and Nursing each form their own professional systems.

# 2. School of Public Health: From a Department of Social Medicine to a WHO Collaborating Centre

# 2.1 A public health lineage traceable to 1887

The University of Hong Kong’s public health education has an exceptionally long lineage. According to the official history page of the School of Public Health^※, public health education began as early as 1887 during the era of the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese (founded by Patrick Manson, James Cantlie, and Ho Kai); it subsequently underwent several name changes:

# 2.2 WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control (2014)

The School of Public Health’s most internationally recognisable role is as a World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Centre. According to the official WHO Collaborating Centre page of the School of Public Health^※:

• Date of designation: 19 December 2014, designated as the “WHO Collaborating Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Control”^※ — the first such centre at HKU;
• Co-Directors: Professor Benjamin J. Cowling and Professor Seto Wing-hong serve jointly as co-directors^※;
• Functions: Collaborating with the WHO on strengthening infection prevention and control capacity, tackling antimicrobial resistance, and enhancing epidemic response to emerging and re-emerging pathogens^※.

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, this WHO Collaborating Centre issued real-time “nowcasts” on the likely scale and local and international spread of the Wuhan coronavirus outbreak (according to a related HKUMed press release^※).

# 2.3 A world-class legacy in epidemiology

The School of Public Health’s international standing in infectious disease epidemiology is intimately connected with Hong Kong’s own epidemic history. According to public academic accounts, the School’s epidemiologists have defined the epidemiological characteristics of multiple emerging viral outbreaks, including SARS (2003), influenza A(H7N9) (2013), and COVID-19; after SARS in 2003, the Hong Kong government, through the Health and Medical Research Fund, provided strong support for infectious disease epidemiology research at HKU (according to a related record from the School of Public Health^※).

# 3. School of Chinese Medicine: Evidence-based Chinese medicine at HKU

The School of Chinese Medicine at HKU is a school within the Li Ka Shing Faculty of Medicine dedicated to Chinese medicine teaching and research.

# 3.1 Establishment and restructuring

On the year of establishment, two official sources offer different emphases; this archive presents them side by side:

• According to the HKUMed 135th Anniversary Milestones page^※, the School of Chinese Medicine was established in 1998 and launched the Bachelor of Chinese Medicine programme;
• According to the School of Chinese Medicine’s official “School Introduction” page^※, the School “was established as early as 1998, offering part-time certificate, diploma and undergraduate programmes, with the aim of fostering interdisciplinary research in Chinese medicine”; it was subsequently restructured in 2002, acquiring its own teaching building on campus.

The two sources do not contradict each other: 1998 marks the School’s founding year, and 2002 the year when its restructured, full-time, UGC-funded undergraduate programme took shape.

# 3.2 Programmes and research

The School of Chinese Medicine currently offers the Bachelor of Chinese Medicine (BChinMed, JUPAS code JS6482)^※. According to the School’s official introduction^※, it aims to combine Chinese medicine theory with modern biomedical science, cultivating practitioners who master both the theoretical knowledge of Chinese medicine and the literacy and practical skills of biomedicine, while integrating the theory, teaching and research of Chinese medicine and modern biomedicine to advance interdisciplinary Chinese medicine research.

Note: Several universities in Hong Kong have schools of Chinese medicine (such as Hong Kong Baptist University and The Chinese University of Hong Kong), each with distinct histories and orientations. This article covers only the HKU school and makes no judgement on comparative claims such as “the first such school in Hong Kong.”

# 4. School of Nursing: See the dedicated article for a detailed history

The School of Nursing at HKU originates from the Department of Nursing Studies, established in 1995 with an initial cohort of 42 students; it was raised to the status of a “School” in 2010 and is now one of the five schools within HKUMed. It offers the Bachelor of Nursing (BNurs, JUPAS code JS6468)^※ (a five-year full-time honours degree), with research strengths encompassing chronic disease nursing, community health, and elderly care. For the full institutional history of the School of Nursing — from the shift of nursing education from a “hospital-based” to a “university-based” model, the department’s elevation to a school, the intertwining of successive leaders with Hong Kong nursing policy, and the current challenges of a nursing shortage — see the dedicated article school-of-nursing-history.md.

# 5. School of Biomedical Sciences: A basic science flagship formed from three departments

The School of Biomedical Sciences (SBS) is the Faculty’s basic science flagship. According to the HKUMed 135th Anniversary Milestones page^※, in 2015, the School of Biomedical Sciences was formed by merging the three departments of Anatomy, Biochemistry, and Physiology; its undergraduate programme, the Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (BBiomedSc), had already been launched back in 2012.

The Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences (BBiomedSc, JUPAS code JS6949^※) is a four-year programme; students must complete 240 credits and can choose to specialise in one of four major streams: biomedical research, bioinformatics, clinical sciences, or health technology^※. SBS carries the Faculty’s basic biomedical research spanning molecular, cellular, and systemic levels — the foundational science underpinning the “world-leading” clinical achievements.

# 6. See also

• Faculty of Medicine structure, overview of the five schools, and MBBS: ./li-ka-shing-faculty-of-medicine-2.md
• Full institutional history of the School of Nursing (founded 1995 as a department, elevated to a school in 2010, nursing workforce policy): school-of-nursing-history.md
• Research strengths of clinical departments (infectious diseases, liver transplantation, etc.): ./departments-and-strengths.md
• Teaching hospitals (Queen Mary, Shenzhen, etc.): ./teaching-hospitals.md
• Faculty of Dentistry: ./faculty-of-dentistry.md
• University-wide research: ../04-research/