History

The Universitas 21 Deans and Heads of Health Sciences network was established to provide Faculty within U21 member universities with a framework for exploring opportunities for collaborative research, information exchange, and sharing of resources.

Following a successful inaugural meeting of the U21 Deans and Heads of Medicine and Nursing in Singapore in 2000, membership expanded to include Dentistry and Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the group's second annual meeting in Vancouver in 2001.

In Hong Kong in 2002, members reaffirmed the many opportunities for collaboration and sharing within and across disciplines, and it was resolved that a Secretariat would be established to facilitate a range of projects and initiatives.

At the group's fourth annual meeting in Glasgow in 2003, the group's newly-formed Executive Committee was expanded to include representatives from all four disciplines. The U21 Health Sciences membership continued to expand to include Pharmacy (2004), Public Health (2007) and, as part of the Health and Rehabilitation Sciences group, Audiology, and Speech Science / Pathology. Each discipline is represented on the Executive Committee.

Subsequent annual meetings have been hosted by The University of Queensland (2004), Lund University (2005), The University of Nottingham (2006), The University of Hong Kong (2007), The University of Virginia (2008) and Tecnológico de Monterrey (2010).

After the cancellation of the 2009 meeting at Korea University due to concerns about the H1N1 virus, the 2011 U21 Health Sciences Annual Meeting was hosted by Korea University in Seoul.

In 2012, the U21 HSG annual meeting will be hosted by the University of Auckland.