November 2002 – Review Committee with Unani-Tibb experts from Hamdard University, Pakistan and Jamia Hamdard University, India together with other participants
In 2001, after the acceptance of Unani-Tibb as the 11th modality of the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA), the Institute established the training at both a 5-year Undergraduate programme as well as a 1-year part time Postgraduate Diploma in Unani Medicine. Both courses commenced officially in 2003, at the University of the Western Cape’s (UWC), School of Natural Medicine (SoNM). The 5-year Undergraduate programme included a 3-year BSc Complementary Health Sciences degree followed by a 2-year specialisation degree in Unani-Tibb, Naturopathy, Phytotherapy and Chinese Medicine. The specifically designed 1-year Postgraduate Diploma in Unani-Tibb, was aimed at doctors, and clinical primary healthcare nurses. Practical training was conducted under the guidance of Tibb doctors at the Tibb Treatment Centres in Surrey Estate and Langa in the Western Cape.
Unfortunately, due to political and vested interest from other professions in the AHPCSA, the training of the Postgraduate Diploma was stopped in 2007 and the Undergraduate training was phased out at UWC in 2008. Whilst the legal action that was initiated by the Institute together with the South African Tibb Association (SATA) resulted in the Undergraduate programme being re-instated from 2010 onwards, with course content reviewed and endorsed by international academics in Unani-Tibb, the aforementioned obstacles still presented, with no students being enrolled at SoNM since 2018. Because of the obstructive activities of the AHPCSA to prevent the training of Unani-Tibb in South Africa and being aware of the global interest in holistic system of medicine, the Institute decided to facilitate the training of this system under the name of Medicine of Hippocrates. Further measures were taken to publish an array of academic articles, including, “Ibn Sina Institute’s contribution to the Medicine of Hippocrates” which provides an overview of the various research projects conducted between 2003 and 2020, validating the philosophical principles of this holistic system of medicine.
Training material for the Tertiary programmes was developed over many years by the Institute with reviews in 2002 and 2010 by international experts. In addition, in 2018, based on the Institute’s research projects, the Institute published a reference textbook for the training of Tibb entitled: “Theoretical Principles of Tibb”, which was also reviewed by international experts.
The Institute being a Public Benefit Organization is willing to share the training modules with Universities and Training Institutions, both locally and internationally.
Participants of the 2010 Curriculum Review Workshop included international experts from Hamdard University,(Pakistan), Aligarh University, Jamia Hamdard University and Bangalore Unani Foundation from India. Academics from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, Cape Peninsula University of Technology, University of Johannesburg as well representatives from the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa