The Student Room Group

UK best medical schools

Hey everyone, I'm applying to medicine for 2022 entry.

I was wondering what the best medical schools in the UK are (in terms of prestige, best courses, best research, linked to top hospitals with specialised facilities etc)? Which medical schools do top candidates apply to? I intend to try to move to the US in the future so will any medical schools help facilitate this? Also which medical schools do the top academic doctors (e.g professors of surgery) or top surgeons (private london surgeons) go to?

Thank you very much for any help!

Scroll to see replies

Original post by Bionet
Hey everyone, I'm applying to medicine for 2022 entry.

I was wondering what the best medical schools in the UK are (in terms of prestige, best courses, best research, linked to top hospitals with specialised facilities etc)? Which medical schools do top candidates apply to? I intend to try to move to the US in the future so will any medical schools help facilitate this? Also which medical schools do the top academic doctors (e.g professors of surgery) or top surgeons (private london surgeons) go to?

Thank you very much for any help!


:sigh:

All UK medical schools meet very high standards. There is no "top medical school".

I doubt anyone in the US has heard of any UK medical schools except perhaps Oxbridge. As an IMG looking to work in the US you will face far greater challenges than which university you attended.

"Top doctors" is a media term, once again this is not a thing within the profession.

My advice to you would be to make your choices carefully and apply to the courses you are most likely to get an offer for.
Reply 2
Original post by Democracy
:sigh:

All UK medical schools meet very high standards. There is no "top medical school".

I doubt anyone in the US has heard of any UK medical schools except perhaps Oxbridge. As an IMG looking to work in the US you will face far greater challenges than which university you attended.

"Top doctors" is a media term, once again this is not a thing within the profession.

My advice to you would be to make your choices carefully and apply to the courses you are most likely to get an offer for

I think I have a shot at most top unis! I achieved 3A* at A-Level (but only first time applying for med), all A* at GCSE, 3060 band 1 UCAT so far. BMAT is looking great as well. Lots of volunteering, work experience and charity work for ps and good reference from school. Working on interview practice rigorously. I just wanna go for the best I can and hope I get in crossed fingers!
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Bionet
I think I have a shot at most top unis! I achieved 4A* at A-Level (but only first time applying for med), all A* at GCSE, 3160 band 1 UCAT so far. BMAT is looking great as well. Lots of volunteering, work experience and charity work for ps and good reference from school. Working on interview practice rigorously. I just wanna go for the best I can and hope I get in crossed fingers!

Did you read what I wrote or have you already made up your mind?
Reply 4
Original post by Democracy
Did you read what I wrote or have you already made up your mind?

Surely they can't all be the same. How can Oxford and Anglia Ruskin have the same level of medical teaching/course content?
Original post by Bionet
Surely they can't all be the same. How can Oxford and Anglia Ruskin have the same level of medical teaching/course content?

they are both medical schools, so of course they are going to be teaching the same things. wdym by level of medical teaching? medical teaching is medical teaching, Oxford isnt going to teach more than anglia ruskin because its ranked higher, when it comes to medicine, rankings dont matter at all. the aim should be to get into a medical school.
Original post by Bionet
Surely they can't all be the same. How can Oxford and Anglia Ruskin have the same level of medical teaching/course content?i

i mean at the end of the day theyre gonna be teaching the same spec to everyone because its the same job + everyone is going to end up working for the nhs unless u go to the us
ppl who end up doing foundation yr r going to have the same exact job as u but a year later.It means **** all
Original post by Bionet
Surely they can't all be the same. How can Oxford and Anglia Ruskin have the same level of medical teaching/course content?

They don’t, but neither do Oxford and Cambridge - all medical courses are somewhat ‘unique’ and Oxford’s course is not necessarily ‘better’. I chose not to apply to Oxbridge because I knew I’d find their courses terminally boring (I know this is flippant :tongue:) and went for more integrated courses with patient contact and more social science/ethics/population medicine teaching - like the newer med schools like ARU.

The point is that they all mean you can practice as a doctor at the end and give you the skills and knowledge you need.
(edited 2 years ago)
Original post by Bionet
Surely they can't all be the same. How can Oxford and Anglia Ruskin have the same level of medical teaching/course content?


They aren't all the same - there are differences between the course structures and some aspects of content.

They do all teach the same core material to an extremely high standard however. The requirements are set externally by the GMC and undergo quality assurance.

It is meaningless to quibble over which medical degree is "top" based on (relatively) superficial differences at undergraduate level when the end product is comparable across all universities.
You're going to be a doctor anyways so medical school rankings don't matter.
It's better to find a university with a teaching style which suits you (ie which one suits you the most out of intergrated, traditional or pbl)
Reply 12
Ok so quick question can I in theory become a cardiothoracic surgeon or neurosurgeon in london (or go to the US) regardless of what medical school I go to in the UK? As long as I do the right things and study extremely well at my chosen uni?
Original post by Bionet
Ok so quick question can I in theory become a cardiothoracic surgeon or neurosurgeon in london (or go to the US) regardless of what medical school I go to in the UK? As long as I do the right things and study extremely well at my chosen uni?

yrs definitely, when it comes to speciality training, they dont care what medical school you go to, they dont even look at it! whether its Oxford or anglia ruskin.
(edited 2 years ago)
If you are studying in the UK then there isn't really a better/worse university to go to - they are all pretty much equal in terms of career prospects afterwards. What you are referring to is general prestige of a university which doesn't matter when applying for a job but internationally I would say Oxbridge and Imperial - not because their courses are better but because people will have heard of these university names.

Look a bit more into working in the US because it is not an easy process - not even all US medical schools qualify you to work in all of the US.

When you are referring to 'top' surgeons I suggest that these do exist but not in the UK - it is a US term which is more a way to charge more for your services and attract customers and is typical of their healthcare system.
Original post by Bionet
Ok so quick question can I in theory become a cardiothoracic surgeon or neurosurgeon in london (or go to the US) regardless of what medical school I go to in the UK? As long as I do the right things and study extremely well at my chosen uni?

Yes but I don't understand your obsession with going to the US. This is not a reason to not go to oxbridge but when you apply for foundation training, you're ranked in deciles against your coursemates which can give you 34-43 points in the educational performance measure which means that you will have to work harder to gain more points if you went to say oxford instead of ARU for medicine.
Original post by hungrysalamander
Yes but I don't understand your obsession with going to the US.

It's driven by the idea that US doctors are fabulously rich, presumably.

Maybe I'm cynical, but I've started to have some sort of a Pavlovian reaction whenever I see 'Oxbridge', 'neurosurgery', and 'working in the US' in the same post.
Reply 17
Original post by hungrysalamander
Yes but I don't understand your obsession with going to the US. This is not a reason to not go to oxbridge but when you apply for foundation training, you're ranked in deciles against your coursemates which can give you 34-43 points in the educational performance measure which means that you will have to work harder to gain more points if you went to say oxford instead of ARU for medicine.

Not with the UKMLA which will replace the current system! Plus not US for money, more for controllable hours, own practice/business set up, family is there, shorter residency etc.
(edited 2 years ago)
Reply 18
Original post by Incidentaloma
It's driven by the idea that US doctors are fabulously rich, presumably.

Maybe I'm cynical, but I've started to have some sort of a Pavlovian reaction whenever I see 'Oxbridge', 'neurosurgery', and 'working in the US' in the same post.

Not for the money actually! Although this is a common delusion of sorts among people in my situation.
Original post by Bionet
Not with the UKMLA which will replace the current system! Plus not US for money, more for controllable hours, own practice/business set up, family is there, shorter residency etc.


Realistically, unless you go to a US medical school you are going to struggle to get into a neurosurgery or cardiothoracics residency.

The residency is shorter because the hours are longer i.e. less controllable. Even after training, no one goes into neurosurgery for the lifestyle.

Quick Reply

Latest