Charterhouse Square, home to Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, part of Queen Mary, University of London. Medical training has taken place at Barts continuously since its foundation in 1123. Its college of medicine was formally founded in 1843. Prior to this date, however, it was already referred to as a "medical school".[1]
All but Warwick Medical School, Swansea Medical School and Ulster University offer undergraduate courses in medicine. The Bute Medical School (University of St Andrews) only offers an undergraduate pre-clinical course, with students proceeding to another medical school for clinical studies. Although Oxford University and Cambridge University offer both pre-clinical and clinical courses in medicine, students who study pre-clinical medicine at one of these universities may move to another university for clinical studies. At other universities students stay at the same university for both pre-clinical and clinical work.
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]
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]
(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.)
4.5 year course, first cohort graduated in June 2019. January start date. Associated hospitals are: Milton Keynes University Hospital; Warwick Hospital (South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust) and Stoke Mandeville Hospital (Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust); St Andrews Hospital Northampton.
Teaching of medicine began in 1540, but lay dormant for many years. An abortive attempt to put medicine on a proper footing was undertaken in the 1840s, but eventually petered out by the 1860s. It was not until 1976 in response to the recommendation of the Royal Commission on Medical Education that a complete medical course was re-established at Cambridge through partnership with Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge.
The school works in very close partnership with NHS Trusts and CCGs in both Lancashire and Cumbria.Recruiting international students from 2015, sponsored UK students from 2017 and UK government funded students from 2018 onwards.
Founded as the Department of Postgraduate Medicine in 1978; began teaching undergraduate clinical medicine in 2003 using the Manchester curriculum. As such, the MBChB degree was awarded by the University of Manchester until 2011. From 2012 (2007 intake) the MBChB degree was awarded by Keele University itself.
The medical school has been formed as a collaboration between the University of Kent and Canterbury Christchurch University. The first cohort will consist of 150 students and is being supervised by Brighton and Sussex Medical School.
Education undertaken by the Cumbria and Lancashire Medical and Dental Consortium. The MBChB degree was awarded by the University of Liverpool. The General Medical Council approved Lancaster in 2012 to deliver their own medical degree independently. Students starting after September 2013, will graduate with a Lancaster degree.
Medicine has been taught at the University of Oxford sporadically since the 13th century but lay dormant through the 19th century. The current medical school, teaching both clinical and undergraduate students, was established in 1946.
Students intercalate a Bachelor of Medical Sciences (BMedSci) degree within the 5 years of their course. An optional year-long Masters of Medical Science (MMedSci) intercalated degree is also on offer for students.
Medicine taught as early as the late 15th century, although no formal medical school was established until circa 1786 with a series of lectures offered by Dr George French and Dr Livingston from which the modern medical school emerged.[75]
From 1883 to 1897, University College Dundee was independent. From 1893 to 1967 medicine was taught in Dundee as part of the University of St Andrews. After 1967, medical teaching was under the auspices of the University of Dundee.
Medicine has been taught in this city since the 16th century. The University of Edinburgh was the first to provide formal medical training beginning in 1726.
Medicine first taught in 1637, however the current medical school can be said to have been established with the appointment of Dr William Cullen in 1751.[79]
Medicine taught at St Andrews from 1413. First MD awarded 1696. First Professor appointed 1721. The medical school was established in 1897.[8] Clinical teaching undertaken at University College, Dundee until 1967. St Andrews awards BSc (Hons), with clinical teaching and MBChB degrees provided by Partner Medical Schools with the exception of the ScotGEM program which awards a joint MB ChB with the University of Dundee.
