Muhimbili University

Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS) is a public university in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences is a successor to the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences (MUCHS), which was a constituent college of the University of Dar es Salaam. MUCHS was established by an Act of Parliament, Act No. 9 of 1991, when the then Faculty of Medicine was upgraded to a college. The Faculty of Medicine originated from the Dar es Salaam School of Medicine, which was established in 1963 by the Ministry of Health with the primary aim of training clinical health staff. In 1968, the Dar es Salaam School of Medicine was upgraded to a Faculty of Medicine of the Dar es Salaam University College of the University of East Africa. In 1976 the Faculty of Medicine was incorporated into Muhimbili Hospital to form the Muhimbili Medical Centre (MMC).

In 1991, the Faculty of Medicine was upgraded to a constituent college of the University of Dar es Salaam, with the aim of nurturing it to a full-fledged university. In 2000 the Government by Act of Parliament disestablished MMC and created two closely linked but autonomous public institutions: MUCHS and the Muhimbili National Hospital (MNH). Over the years MUCHS made significant achievements in increased student enrollment and development of several new academic programmes. The Parliament Act No. 9 of 1991 that established MUCHS was repealed in 2005. In 2007, MUHAS was established by Article 1 of the Charter of Incorporation, in line with the recommendations of the Tanzania Commission of Universities.

As of May 2009, the university has a number of campuses, including:

The smaller facilities — at Bagamoyo and just outside Dar es Salaam — are used for fieldwork during community contact and other academic and research activities. There is a student hostel located along Chole Road, Masaki, Dar es Salaam.

Research features prominently in the institutional focus of the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences. The university is engaged in over 40 major research endeavours. They range from ‘vitamin trials among the children of HIV-infected women’ to an examination of ‘health insurance in developing countries’ and from a study of the ‘social and contextual predictors of male heterosexual risk behavior in Africa’ to one that looks at ‘the effect of multivitamin supplements on clinical and immunological response in childhood tuberculosis’. Research partners include the European Union and several European and American universities.