History of medical training
The first medical school in the United Kingdom was established at the University of Edinburgh in 1726. [3] Medical education prior to this was based on apprenticeships and learning from observation. Professors of medicine did very little if any training of students. Few students graduated as physicians during this earlier period.
The earliest example of this earlier style of medical training in Britain was in 1123 at St Bartholomew's Hospital, now part of Queen Mary, University of London. The first Chair of Medicine at a British university was established at the University of Aberdeen in 1497, [4] although this was only filled intermittently and there were calls "for the establishment of a medical school" in 1787. [5] Medical teaching has taken place erratically at the University of Oxford since the early 16th century, and its first Regius Professor of Physic was appointed in 1546. Teaching was reformed in 1833 and again in 1856, [6] but the current medical school was not founded until 1936. [7] The University of St Andrews established a Chair of Medicine in 1772, but did not have a medical school (at Dundee) until 1897. [8] The Linacre Readership in Medicine at the University of Cambridge was founded in 1524, and the Regius Professor of Physic was established in 1540. Teaching was reformed in 1829, [6] but the current medical school was established in 1976. [9] Teaching of apprentices was first recorded in 1561 at St Thomas's Hospital, London, and formalised between 1693 and 1709. [10]
Surgery was seen as a separate profession, initially learned by barber-surgeons through apprenticeship and regulated by its guild, and later by examination by the Royal Colleges of Surgery in England, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Ireland.
The University of Edinburgh Medical School was founded in 1726 and was the first formally established medical school in the UK. This was followed by Glasgow in 1744, although the school was without a teaching hospital until 1794. [11] The oldest medical school in England is St George's, University of London, which began formal teaching in 1751. [12] In 1768 teaching at St Thomas's and Guy's hospitals in London was formalised with the foundation of the United Hospitals Medical School, which lasted until the foundation of a separate medical school at Guy's in 1825 (now both part of King's College London). [10] The London Hospital Medical College (LHMC) was founded in 1785 and is now part of Queen Mary, University of London's School of Medicine. In the first half of the 19th century, the newly founded university colleges in London opened teaching hospitals in 1834 (University College Hospital) [13] and 1839 (King's College Hospital). [14] The Middlesex Hospital Medical School (now part of UCL) was also founded in this period, in 1835. [13] The London School of Medicine for Women was founded in 1874, the first medical school in Britain to teach women (now part of UCL). [15]
Outside of London and the universities, medical teaching began in Manchester in 1752 [16] and lectures in Birmingham in 1767. [17] Medical schools in Manchester (1824), [18] Birmingham (1825), [17] Sheffield (1829), [19] Leeds (1831), [20] Bristol (1833), [21] Newcastle (1834), [22] Liverpool (1834), [23] and Belfast (1835) [24] were formally established in the first half of the 19th century. Durham University introduced teaching by a Reader in Medicine from its opening in 1833, but had no medical school until the affiliation of the College of Medicine in Newcastle in 1854. [25] In the later 19th century a medical school was established at Cardiff in 1893. [26]
The Medical Act 1858 was a key development in the professionalising of medical practice and training, introducing the General Medical Council and the Medical Register. [27]
20th and 21st century
The next expansion of medical schools began following the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Medical Education (1965–1968) (the Todd Report), which called for the immediate establishment of new schools in Southampton, Leicester and Nottingham to aid medical education in the United Kingdom; [28] [29] all were built between 1970 and 1980. Medical schools at Warwick (located in Coventry), Swansea, Keele (located in Stoke-on-Trent) and Hull (in partnership with York) eventually opened in the 1990s and early 21st century, as well as new medical schools at University of East Anglia (located in Norwich) Durham, Brighton and Sussex, and Plymouth and Exeter.
Buckingham University, the oldest private university in England, opened University of Buckingham Medical School, a graduate entry medical school in 2015. [30] University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) School of Medicine opened to medical students in 2015. [31]
In 2018 Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, announced the creation of five new medical schools in Sunderland, Chelmsford, Canterbury, Lincoln and Lancashire. [32]
Three medical schools were established in the 2020s, although UK government policy limited the number of places funded for UK students. [33]
Brunel Medical School at Brunel University London opened in 2021, admitting overseas students only. [34]
Three Counties Medical School at the University of Worcester opens in September 2023. [35]
Chester Medical School at the University of Chester will offer a postgraduate MB ChB degree course starting in 2024. [36]
Historical medical schools
(Please note that in the tables below and noting the complexities described above in deciding what date some level of teaching became what we now recognise as a medical school, the establishment date generally reflects the formal commencement of the current medical school.)
Imperial College London (Imperial) is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, who envisioned a cultural area in South Kensington that included museums, colleges, and the Royal Albert Hall. In 1907, these colleges – the Royal College of Science, the Royal School of Mines, and the City and Guilds of London Institute – merged to form the Imperial College of Science and Technology.
GKT School of Medical Education is the medical school of King's College London. The school has campuses at three institutions, Guy's Hospital (Southwark), King's College Hospital and St Thomas' Hospital (Lambeth) in London – with the initial of each hospital making up the acronymous name of the school. The school in its current guise was formed following a merger with the United Medical and Dental Schools of Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals on 1 August 1998. As of 2023, the medical school is ranked 5th best in the UK for clinical medicine by U.S. News & World Report, and 10th best worldwide by Times Higher Education.
Newcastle University is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, North East England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a member of the Russell Group, an association of research-intensive UK universities.
Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts or BL, is a medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal University of London, and the United Hospitals. It was formed in 1995 by the merger of the London Hospital Medical College and the Medical College of St Bartholomew's Hospital.
University College Hospital (UCH) is a teaching hospital in the Fitzrovia area of the London Borough of Camden, England. The hospital, which was founded as the North London Hospital in 1834, is closely associated with University College London (UCL), whose main campus is situated next door. The hospital is part of the University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust.
St George's, University of London (SGUL), legally the St George's Hospital Medical School, was a public university in South London, England. It merged with City, University of London to form City St George's, University of London in August 2024. The names "City, University of London" and "St George’s, University of London" will provisionally continue as trading names until March 2025.
The University of Buckingham (UB) is a non-profit private university in Buckingham, England and the oldest of the country's six private universities. It was founded as the University College at Buckingham (UCB) in 1973, admitting its first students in 1976. It was granted university status by royal charter in 1983.
A Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery is a medical degree granted by medical schools or universities in countries that adhere to the United Kingdom's higher education tradition. Despite the historical distinction in nomenclature, these degrees are typically combined and conferred together. This degree is usually awarded as an undergraduate degree, but it can also be awarded at graduate-level medical institutions. The typical duration for completion is five to six years.
In the United Kingdom, medical school generally refers to a department within a university which is involved in the education of future medical practitioners. All leading British medical schools are state-funded and their core purpose is to train doctors on behalf of the National Health Service. Courses generally last four to six years: two years of pre-clinical training in an academic environment and two to three years clinical training at a teaching hospital and in community settings. Medical schools and teaching hospitals are closely integrated. The course of study is extended to six years if an intercalated degree is taken in a related subject.
Imperial College School of Medicine (ICSM) is the undergraduate medical school of Imperial College London in England and one of the United Hospitals. It is part of the college's Faculty of Medicine and was formed by the merger of several historic medical schools. Its core campuses are located at South Kensington, St Mary's, Charing Cross, Hammersmith and Chelsea and Westminster. The school ranked 4th in the world for medicine in the 2024 Times Higher Education World University Rankings.
UCL Medical School is the medical school of University College London (UCL) and is located in London, United Kingdom. The school provides a wide range of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education programmes and also has a medical education research unit and an education consultancy unit. It is internationally renowned and is currently ranked 6th in the world by the QS World University Rankings for Medicine 2024.
Keele University School of Medicine is a medical school located in Newcastle-under-Lyme and Shrewsbury. The first two years of the school's MBChB degree are mostly taught on the Keele University campus, while early contact with patients is critical, and there is significant interaction in a clinical environment from the second year onwards.
The University of St Andrews School of Medicine is the school of medicine at the University of St Andrews in St Andrews, Fife, Scotland and the oldest medical school in Scotland.
The School of Medical Sciences at the University of Manchester is one of the largest in the United Kingdom with around 6,000 undergraduates, 3,000 postgraduates and 2,000 staff. It is the third oldest medical school in England and the largest medical school in the United Kingdom. The Faculty is a member of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre and has four affiliated teaching hospitals at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Wythenshawe Hospital, Salford Royal Hospital and the Royal Preston Hospital.
Newcastle University School of Medicine is the medical school at Newcastle University in England. It was established in 1834 in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and served as the College of Medicine in connection with Durham University from 1851 to 1870 and then, as a full college of the university, Durham University College of Medicine from 1870 to 1937 when it joined Armstrong College, to form King's College, Durham. In 1963 King's College became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne. The university now uses the name "Newcastle University".
Warwick Medical School is the medical school of the University of Warwick and is located in Coventry, United Kingdom. It was opened in 2000 in partnership with Leicester Medical School, and was granted independent degree-awarding status in 2007.
Chelsea and Westminster Hospital is a 430-bed teaching hospital located in Chelsea, London. The hospital has a rich history in that it serves as the new site for the Westminster Hospital. It is operated by Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and became a member of Imperial College Academic Health Science Centre in July 2020. The hospital is the central part of Imperial College London Chelsea and Westminster Campus, and plays an integral role in teaching students and conducting medical research at Imperial College London.
Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD) was a medical and dental school in England, run in partnership with the University of Exeter, the University of Plymouth and the NHS in Devon and Cornwall. In January 2013 the school began disaggregation to form Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and the University of Exeter Medical School.
Dame Margaret Elizabeth Turner-Warwick was a British medical doctor and thoracic specialist. She was the first woman president of the Royal College of Physicians (1989–1992) and, later, chairman of the Royal Devon and Exeter Health Care NHS Trust (1992–1995).
The University of Dundee School of Medicine is the school concerned with medical education and clinical research at the University of Dundee in Scotland. In 1967, Dundee's medical school became independent in its own right having started in 1889 as a joint venture between the University of St Andrews and University College Dundee. In 1974 the medical school moved to a large teaching facility based at Ninewells Hospital in the west of Dundee. The School of Medicine now encompasses undergraduate, postgraduate, specialist teaching centres and four research divisions.
