CUHK Faculty of Medicine Deep Profile — Five Schools, Clinical/Preclinical Departments, and Teaching Hospitals

Module: 01 Academics · Sub-file: Medicine Deep Profile Last updated: 2026-07-01 The CUHK Faculty of Medicine is one of Hong Kong's two medical schools, with the Prince of Wales Hospital as its principal teaching hospital. This article details its historical milestones, the organisational logic behind the evolution of its five Schools plus 14 clinical/preclinical departments, and its landmark research achievements. This article focuses on the organisational architecture of the Faculty/Schools/Departments and curriculum evolution; the history of the hospitals, the clinical timeline of SARS, and the biography of the founding Dean can be found in Module 11 (see cross-references at the end), with reciprocal links to avoid duplication. For a complete list of departments, see departments.md; for a faculty overview, see faculties.md.

# I. Historical Milestones

According to the Faculty's official "Milestones" page and the CUHK History Gallery(Faculty Milestones)^※:

According to the History Gallery, the Faculty's "school" phase began with its 1974 approval and 1981 first intake, belonging to an era distinct from the three founding Faculties of Arts, Science, and Social Science established in 1963(CUHK History Gallery Zone A)^※. From the Urban Councillor's 1968 proposal to the first intake in 1981, the Faculty's gestation spanned thirteen years—this is not unique to CUHK, but reflects the protracted legislative, site-selection, construction, and professorial recruitment timelines inherent in establishing a medical school.

# II. Structure: Five Schools + 14 Clinical/Preclinical Departments

According to the Faculty's official site, it encompasses 19 teaching Schools, Departments, and Units(Faculty of Medicine website)^※. The figure "19" itself narrates a story of expansion: what began as a single clinical medicine track has evolved into a two-tiered organisational structure of "5 Schools + 14 Departments"—the "School" tier hosts disciplines with relatively independent degree-granting systems (Nursing, Pharmacy, Public Health, Biomedical Sciences, Chinese Medicine), while the "Department" tier hosts traditional specialties tightly integrated with the clinical rotations at the Prince of Wales Hospital.

# 1. The Five Schools

The establishment of the five Schools stretches across more than two decades, from 1991 to 2013—a reminder that what appears today as a set of parallel entities actually emerged in batches, driven by distinct societal needs: Nursing and Pharmacy were prioritised in the early 1990s (responding to Hong Kong's healthcare workforce demands); the School of Public Health was established in 2001 in response to emerging global infectious disease threats; the School of Biomedical Sciences consolidated preclinical research in 2010; and the School of Chinese Medicine was transferred from the Faculty of Science in 2013 due to a realignment of its disciplinary home.

# 2. The 14 Clinical/Preclinical Departments

Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, Chemical Pathology, Clinical Oncology, Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Medicine and Therapeutics, Microbiology, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Otorhinolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Paediatrics, Psychiatry, Surgery(Faculty of Medicine website)^※.

These 14 departments can be broadly divided into two categories. The first comprises diagnostic/support departments (Anatomical and Cellular Pathology, Chemical Pathology, Imaging and Interventional Radiology, Microbiology, Anaesthesia and Intensive Care)—which do not face outpatients directly but provide laboratory, imaging, and anaesthetic support to other clinical departments. The second consists of clinical specialty departments (Medicine and Therapeutics, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Paediatrics, Psychiatry, Orthopaedics and Traumatology, Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences, Otorhinolaryngology, Clinical Oncology)—directly responsible for corresponding specialist outpatient, inpatient, and surgical services. This bipartite "supportive + clinical specialty" structure broadly mirrors the departmental configuration of the Prince of Wales Hospital as a regional acute hospital, illustrating the high degree of coupling between the Faculty's academic departments and the hospital's clinical units under the teaching-hospital model.

# III. The Teaching Hospital System

• Prince of Wales Hospital: Opened in 1984 in Sha Tin, it is the Faculty's principal clinical teaching hospital(Faculty Milestones)^※; for its construction history, scale data, and the full clinical timeline of the 2003 SARS nosocomial outbreak, see 11-medical-hospital/prince-of-wales-and-sars.md.
• Clinical teaching also extends to United Christian Hospital (from 1983) and other public hospitals, with students rotating through clinical departments across multiple teaching hospitals.
• CUHK Medical Centre (CUHKMC): A self-financing, non-profit private teaching hospital that opened on the CUHK campus in 2021, serving as the Faculty's second teaching hospital. See 11-medical-hospital/faculty-of-medicine.md for details.

# IV. Programmes: From a Six-Year to a Four-Year Graduate Entry Track

• Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBChB): Following a six-year British-style curriculum. The first cohort of 60 students was admitted in 1981; typical annual intake is now several hundred. The inaugural cohort graduated in 1986; the programme received General Medical Council (UK) recognition in 1987.
• According to the Faculty's official curriculum page^※ and the admissions page^※, from 2025, alongside the traditional six-year MBChB, the Faculty has introduced a new four-year Graduate Entry Track (GET). This is designed for applicants already holding a recognised bachelor's degree, leveraging knowledge and skills from their first degree to complete medical training in four years. From 2025, degree holders and final-year students applying via the Non-JUPAS route will automatically be considered for the GET. According to official sources, total MBChB admissions from 2025 will be approximately 300 places for secondary-school leavers plus 25 places for degree holders (exclusive to GET).
• Policy implications of the GET: The official rationale is to train more doctors in a shorter cycle, helping to alleviate Hong Kong's healthcare manpower shortage. This marks the first time in over forty years that the Faculty has introduced a second admissions and training pathway alongside the six-year track, responding in some measure to recent sustained public discussions in Hong Kong about insufficient doctor supply.
• Degree programmes in Biomedical Sciences, Pharmacy, Nursing, Public Health, and Chinese Medicine are housed in their respective Schools; see the relevant School subsections in faculty-of-medicine.md.
• Research postgraduate (MPhil/PhD) programmes are offered by the clinical/preclinical departments and administered by the Graduate School (see programs.md).

# V. Landmark Research Achievements

The CUHK Faculty of Medicine has achieved international impact in fields such as molecular diagnostics, endoscopic surgery, and infectious disease research. The following is based on public press releases and reports.

# 1. Non-Invasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT)

• In 1997, a CUHK Faculty of Medicine team reported the presence of cell-free fetal DNA in maternal plasma, laying the theoretical foundation for non-invasive prenatal testing (NIPT); the related non-invasive screening for Down syndrome has since been applied in many countries globally.
• The principal inventor in this field is the current Vice-Chancellor and President of CUHK, whose research honours (including the Royal Society Medal, among others) are a matter of public record per University press releases. Following the site-wide editorial convention, current senior leadership is referred to by title in contexts involving university governance or controversy; this instance concerns scientific facts predating his assumption of university executive office, but for consistency, this article uses "the CUHK Faculty of Medicine team / the current Vice-Chancellor" without detailing personal biography (biographical entries belong to Module 06).

# 2. SARS Coronavirus Research (2003)

• During the 2003 SARS epidemic, the CUHK medical team was among the first globally to sequence the coronavirus genome (the third worldwide to publish the complete genomic sequence, with the isolate named CUHK-W1), and participated in scientific research on viral mutations. For the full clinical timeline of the nosocomial outbreak at the Prince of Wales Hospital, see 11-medical-hospital/prince-of-wales-and-sars.md.

# 3. Endoscopy and Surgical Robotics

• The current Dean, Professor Philip Chiu Wai-yan, holds multiple "world-first" records in endoscopic submucosal dissection (ESD) and surgical robotics, as recorded in Faculty press releases(appointment press release)^※.

# VI. At a Glance