Medical Science became part of the University of Ghana educational programmes in 1962 when the first batch of students was admitted to pursue courses for a degree in medicine. The plan then was to have America government funding for buildings for the Medical School. The proposed medical school was also to be staffed by expatriates. For political and other reasons, this plan was aborted in 1964. The government of Ghana with Dr. Kwame Nkrumah as President, rather decided to have a Medical School fully own by Ghana and with Ghanaian management and teaching staff. In 1964, Professor C.O. Easmon was appointed first Dean of the Ghana Medical School. This school was housed in temporary building at the Korle Bu Hospital that also became a teaching hospital to provide clinical facilities and other resources for clinical courses at the school. In 1969, the Ghana Medical School was formally incorporated into the University as the University of Ghana Medical School (UGMS). In the same year, the first 39 graduating students of the School were awarded University of Ghana degree.

In 1974, the UGMS initiated the development of a dental school. The Basic Dental Science courses were offered at the Medical School; the dentistry student pursued clinical programmes at the University of Lagos, Nigeria, the University of Manchester and the University of London, UK. In 1992, the clinical courses became fully localized. The University therefore granted dentistry a faculty status. The batch of locally produced dental surgeons graduated in 1997.

In 1979, the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research (NMIMR) was established with sponsorship from the Japan government through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning. This Research Institute was sited on the plot of the University of Ghana earmarked for the permanent structure of the medical complex to have been developed at this site.

In 1994, the Medical School, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, brought into being the School of Public Health for graduate courses leading to the award of MPH, MPhil and PhD degrees. This School is currently located in rooms of the Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research and in the Department of Statistics. Permanent buildings for the School have started with the construction of the Bill Gates Centre for Malaria Research and Control at the site for the medical complex at the main University.

The Ministry of Health , in 1998, initiated the establishment of a School of Allied Health Sciences to produce medical and dental technical graduates through the Medical School. Programmes for this School included physiotherapy, medical laboratory science and radiography. Academic board and the University Council approved this proposal in 1999; In the year 2001, this school came into being. an earlier Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology also sponsored by the Ministry of Health in 1994 was phased out, with the birth of the School of Allied Health sciences. In the year 2007, the School of Pharmacy was established.

A former Dean of the Medical School, Professor E. Q. Archeampong, mooted the idea of creating a College of Medicine in 1994. Planning for the College took 5 years. In 1997, the Academic Board of the University endorsed proposal from the UGMS under the deanship of Professor S. K. Owusu to bring together the Medical School, Dental School, School of Public Health, Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, School of Allied Health Sciences and School of Nursing  as a College of Medical Sciences.

On December 11, 1999, the University Council gave assent for the establishment of a College but changed the name to the COLLEGE OF HEALTH SCIENCES. Schedule D of the University of Ghana Statutes that established the UGMS was therefores amended to bring the College into being. Department of Nursing is now School of Nursing and a new School, the School of Pharmacy has been established.

The College is the apex body for these seven institutions.  The College is headed by a Provost, seconded by a Deputy Provost.

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