The pandemic, which started in 2020, shone a spotlight on the link between physical health, psychological and emotional wellbeing. 

In addition, the challenges our health care workforce faced demonstrated the profound interconnections between medicine, health care systems and numerous sub-disciplines found within psychology.

The impetus for this amalgamation was the recognition of the interdependence of body and mind in determining health and wellbeing outcomes and a recognition that with a holistic approach we could develop novel and highly impactful education and research programs.

We believe the value in the creation of our school lies in what we can learn from each other and the potential to create something that is a much more substantial whole than the sum of the parts.

Our history in psychology

The discipline of psychology has a long history at ANU, with academic appointments starting in 1951.

In 1949, the Chairman of the Canberra University College, Sir Robert Garran, announced that the Department of Psychology would be established given the strong demand from students (Canberra University College became the School of General Studies at the ANU in 1960).

In January 1951, Mr Patrick Pentony arrived from the University of Western Australia and joined the Department as a Senior Lecturer responsible for teaching and research in Psychology with additional appointments following.

In 1955 the first Professor of Psychology, Cecil Gibb was appointed. As the foundation Professor in Psychology, he insisted that psychology was a biological science, encouraged the development of biological interests within the Department, and lobbied effectively to locate psychology in the University's Science Faculty. He also wanted to build a department strong in social psychology (most Australian departments were then dominated by "experimental" psychology).  Today, our psychology discipline at ANU is recognised across the globe as a leader in social psychology.

From the very beginning, and still today, the psychology faculty has fostered, attracted, and collaborated with the leading figures in the field.

Our history in medicine and health sciences

The discipline of medicine can be viewed as a descendant of the University of Sydney’s Canberra Clinical School. Under the guidance of Professor Paul Gatenby, the Canberra Clinical School developed a strong teaching program to the point of conducting the entire final year of University of Sydney’s five-year undergraduate medical degree.

When the University of Sydney introduced a four-year graduate program in 1996, the school became responsible for training 20 students in the entire year three and four curriculum and parts of years one and two. During this time, the school also took the first steps toward its current reputation for cutting-edge medical research, establishing laboratories, a tissue and organ museum and an animal house at the Canberra Hospital.

By 2000, the Canberra Clinical School became so successful, the then Minister for Health, Michael Wooldridge, deemed that ANU should establish a stand-alone medical school. In 2002 the ANU Medical School was formed with the appointment of Professor Gatenby as Foundation Dean and funding from the Commonwealth Department of Health & Ageing.

Building on the University of Sydney's curriculum, the school increased the importance of rural and Indigenous health, ethics and law, the social aspects of medicine and medical science. The first 72 students of the then Bachelor of Medicine / Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) graduated in 2007. The program expanded to enroll commonwealth students per year in 2009 and became known as the Doctor of Medicine and Surgery program in 2014.