Unam nursing students turned away as training space runs out at clinics

Nursing students at the University of Namibia (Unam) are being turned away from some clinics due to limited training capacity.

Unam’s executive dean for the faculty of health sciences and veterinary medicine, professor Cilas Wilders, says student numbers are growing faster than the capacity of health facilities to supervise them during clinical placements.

Wilders on Friday made a presentation to the parliamentary standing committee on education, youth, civic relations and community development during a consultation on the growth of health training centres.

He said overcrowding has become one of the university’s biggest challenges.

“Our students were chased out of specific clinical sites by supervisors because of the overpopulation of those facilities, and that is not conducive to the training of our students,” he said.

“The real constraint is the gap between the public demand for health training places and the health system’s clinical training capacity.”

The consultation follows a motion adopted by the National Assembly in November last year.

The motion was tabled by Popular Democratic Movement member of parliament Winnie Moongo in June 2025, calling for a review of the quality of health training to determine whether programmes meet labour market needs, and to examine the accreditation processes of the Namibia Qualifications Authority and the Health Professions Council of Namibia.

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