On Saturday 4 May 2019, UCT hosted its annual Open Day. The event saw thousands of eager high school learners accompanied by teachers, guardians and parents, mill around UCT’s Upper campus to see what UCT had to offer. The Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) was a popular choice.

From start to finish the FHS Open Day venue buzzed with crowds, energy and excitement, drawn by the bright banners outside. The eyes of learners lit up from as soon as they entered the venue – there were a selfie-frame with health related props, live demonstrations of equipment (life-like manequins) used for teaching in each undergraduate academic programme, as well as free goodies up for grabs. Teaching staff were identifiable by the range of amusing hats worn, and students by their scrubs for the different programmes.

This year, the participation of Health Sciences’ students was enthusiastic and critical to the success of the Open Day. Adorned in their scrubs, students from a range of societies (Cardiac, Surgical, Pre-Clinical) and from Health and Rehabilitation and SHAWCO, were all stationed at stalls set up for each undergraduate programme offered. There, learners could ask questions and interact with our current students to get a better understanding of the environment at UCT as well as the Faculty’s academic programmes.

Each of the five programme presentations were preceded by a ‘medical emergency’ with students from the Pre-Clinical Society enacting a ‘patient’ dramatically collapsing in front of the audience. They went on to demonstrate the response required from practitioners in each of the disciplines (Audiology, MBChB, physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Speech-language Pathology) at different stages to nurse the patient back to health.

Students also enjoyed the excellent presentations by teachers, the Interim Dean Prof Carolyn Williamson as well as Vice Chancellor Mamokgethi Phakeng.