The Nursing & Health Care School, University of Glasgow, (formerly the Division of Nursing and Health Care) is a speciality area within the School of Medicine, Dentistry and Nursing in Glasgow, Scotland. The School has offered a degree course in Nursing since 1977, introduced under the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the time, Professor Edward McGirr. [1]
University of Glasgow students contributed to nursing long before the Nursing & Health Care School opened. In 1915, it was announced that student volunteers could help at the Military Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). The Western and the Glasgow Royal Infirmary hospitals accepted volunteers as nurses though students could also volunteer at hospitals overseas. Many female students signed up and received training to work as nurses including both those who were undertaking medical training at Glasgow as well as those who were not pursuing a career in medicine. [2] One such Glasgow alumna was Isabel MacPhail: when war broke in 1914, she and her sister Katherine went to Serbia to work in the Scottish Women’s Hospital. [3] [4] MacPhail was awarded a number of decorations for her service: the French Medaille d’Honneur, the Serbian Cross of Charity and the Serbian Red Cross Nursing Medal. [5] [3]
The Nursing & Health Care School, originally known as the Department of Nursing Studies, was established by Professor Edward McGirr in 1978. [1] [6] He was Professor of Medicine from 1961 to 1978 and Dean of the Faculty of Medicine from 1974 to 1981. [1] The School offered a four year undergraduate pre-registration Bachelor of Nursing degree programme, which was to admit up to 25 students to the course which would lead to the award of the Bachelor of Nursing degree. The course would combine academic study and professional training. The choice of locating the Nursing degree programme within the Medical Faculty was deliberate with the intention to produce graduate nurses who would be thoroughly grounded in health-related scientific theory and be competent and safe practitioners. [7] Initially the Nursing and Health Care School was at 68 Oakfield Ave [8] before moving to 57-61 Oakfield Ave as more space was required. A postgraduate diploma in emergency trauma care was offered in 1998. [9]
In the first 30 years of the Nursing & Health Care School, 214 nurses had graduated from the programme. [7] As of 2023, between 50 and 60 students start their Bachelor of Nursing (Hons) degree programme each year in Glasgow. [10]
In 1986, eight students graduated from The Nursing & Healthcare School with a Master of Nursing degree, the first Nursing Masters in the UK. [11]
In 2011, the University of Glasgow proposed closing the Nursing & Health Care School as part of a University wide cost cutting exercise. A petition received over 900 signatories and the Royal College of Nursing spoke in favour of keeping the School open. [12]
In 2016 the School of Nursing & Health Care and Singapore Institute of Technology developed a joint Bachelor of Science with Honours in Nursing. This two-year post-registration nursing degree programme was co-created and designed with inputs from practice partners and the Ministry of Health in Singapore, and accredited by the Singapore Nursing Board. This degree programme builds on the foundation that students have established during their nursing diploma studies. The aim of the programme is to develop critical, analytical and innovation skills, as well as leadership, research, teaching, and clinical competencies. [13]
The Nursing & Health Care School runs both undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.
Undergraduate programmes
Postgraduate programmes
CPD courses
A lecture is held annually to commemorate Professor McGirr and the establishment of Nursing at Glasgow. The McGirr Prize is awarded to the most distinguished graduate of the year in the Bachelor of Nursing Degree. The Annual McGirr Lecture was established in 2003. Guest speakers have included:
The University of Glasgow has a Nursing Society run by nursing students. [34] Students from the society took part in the 2025 Glasgow Science Festival to raise the profile of the pioneers of nursing in Glasgow. [35]
Student nurses across Scotland had their education disrupted during COVID-19. In March 2020, student nurses and midwives in year 2 onwards could ‘opt in’ to a revised programme structure of extended paid placements to support the workforce during the Covid-19 pandemic. Students registered with the NHS Education for Scotland (NES) Covid-19 Accelerated Recruitment Portal. Allocations of placements remained the responsibility of universities in line with Nursing and Midwifery Council emergency standards to ensure they achieved programme outcomes. [36] Final-year nursing students in Scotland were offered band 4 pay if they signed up to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. [37]
The Nursing and Healthcare School is ranked 1st in the 2026 Nursing & Midwifery League Table of the Complete University Guide for the UK [38] and 1st in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide . [39] In 2024 the nursing programme was also ranked 2nd in the UK for Nursing & Midwifery in the Guardian University Guide. [40]
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