​Rural health is more than a profession for Prof Ian Couper, the newly appointed director for the Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health. He believes it is his calling.

"I was drawn to rural health because I wanted to make a difference in the lives of the poor, the marginalised, the underserved, and oppressed," says Couper. He joined Stellenbosch University (SU) in April after 14 years at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), where he was appointed in 2002 as the first full professor of rural health in Africa.

"Stellenbosch has done more to support and develop rural health care training than any other institution, and I am excited to come and work in an environment where so much energy, resources and commitment has been given to rural health," says Couper.

The Ukwanda Centre for Rural Health was established in 2001 by SU's Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences to facilitate training on rural platforms in order to equip health care professionals with applicable knowledge and hands on experience of the health issues facing rural and underserved communities. The centre consists of over 20 rural training platforms based in the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape provinces, including the flagship Rural Clinical School in Worcester.

Couper's vision is to build on the centre's well-laid foundation. "It's about the bigger picture, about developing Ukwanda to help the faculty in driving its vision for rural health in all its facets." He hopes to expand the undergraduate training programmes in both medicine and allied health sciences, and to include other SU programmes and faculties and universities. He also wants to promote postgraduate training and research on the rural platforms. Research will be a major focus and he looks forward to collaborating with other disciplines in this regard.

"I am very excited about the development potential. My aim is to establish the centre as a knowledge and resource hub for rural health," he says.

Couper's medical and professional career is entirely rooted in rural health. Many of the formative years of his medical career were spent at Manguzi Hospital in rural KwaZulu-Natal. During his time there he specialised in Family Medicine through the Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, then known as the Medical University of South Africa (Medunsa). He also spent six months at one of the first centres for rural health that was established at Monash University in Australia.

"Back then rural health centres were a new concept, and this experience gave me a vision of what such a centre should look like, and what it can do," says Couper.

He was also one of the founders of the Rural Doctor's Association (Rudasa) and served two terms as chair of the World Organisation of Family Doctors' working party on rural practice.

In 1999 he moved to the North West province where he joined Medunsa, and in 2002 moved to Wits and worked in a joint position with the North West Department of Health where he helped to develop primary care and family medicine across this largely rural province.

His academic appointment is as Professor of Rural health in the Centre for Health Professions Education, which fits his passion for developing future health professionals for rural areas.