1746 (Middlesex Hospital Medical School) 1834 (University College Hospital Medical School) 1874 (London School of Medicine for Women, later The Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine) 1987 (University College and Middlesex School of Medicine) 1998 (Royal Free and University College Medical School) 2008 (renamed UCL Medical School)
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 2023.
UCL Medical School formed over a number of years from the merger of a number of institutions:[1]
The
Middlesex Hospital opened in Fitzrovia in 1745 and was training doctors from 1746 onwards, when students were 'walking the wards'.
University College Hospital opened in 1834 as the North London Hospital, with the purpose of providing the then newly opened
University College London with a hospital to train medical students after refusal by the governors of the Middlesex Hospital to share its facilities with UCL.
Middlesex Hospital and University College Hospital merged their medical schools in 1987 to form University College & Middlesex School of Medicine (UCMSM).
The
London School of Medicine for Women was established in 1874 by
Sophia Jex-Blake, as the first medical school in Britain to train women. In 1877 The Royal Free Hospital agreed to allow students from LSMW to complete their clinical studies there and by 1896 was renamed The London Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine for Women and became part of the
University of London.
In 1998 The Royal Free & University College Medical School (RFUCMS) was formed from the merger of the two medical schools. On 1 October 2008, it was officially renamed UCL Medical School.[2]
In appreciation of the historic beginnings of UCL Medical School, its student society has retained the name "RUMS" (Royal Free, University College and Middlesex Medical Students Society) and runs clubs and societies within
University College London Union.[3]
Teaching
The medical school is one of the largest in the country with a yearly intake of 334 students.[4] Undergraduate teaching is spread across three campuses based in Bloomsbury (including
University College Hospital), at Archway (including
Whittington Hospital) and in Hampstead (including the
Royal Free Hospital).[5]
The school is not only widely regarded as one of the best medical schools in the country (frequently ranked between number 1–5 in the country), but also one of the best in the world; being ranked consistently in the top 10.
Course
The course in medicine at UCL leads to the award of the
MB BS and
BSc (Hons) degrees and is a six-year integrated programme: Years 1 and 2 Fundamentals of Clinical Science; Year 3 Integrated BSc degree; Year 4 Integrated Clinical Care; Year 5 The Life Cycle and Specialist Practice and Year 6 Preparation for Practice.[6]
Admission
Admission to the medical school, in common with all 44 medical schools in the UK, is extremely competitive. The medical school receives approximately 2,500 applications yearly (over 2700 for 2018 entry) of which up to 700 applicants are selected for interview. Approximately 450 offers are given for 322 places. Prospective students must apply through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).[7]
As of 2021 entry, conditional offers for entry include grades A*AA at
A-level, to include at least Chemistry and Biology, and an additional subject at A-level. The
International Baccalaureate (Full Diploma), although less common, is also an acceptable entry qualification. The course is also open to graduates with a minimum of a 2:1 required. Additionally, applicants must sit an entrance exam, the
BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT) which is used alongside the rest of the UCAS application to determine selection for interview.[8][9][10] The interview process involves a 20-30 minute panel interview conducted by a panel of UCL academic staff, members of the healthcare team or medical students.[11]
Associated hospitals and research institutes
Hospitals
UCL Medical School is associated with the following hospitals:
UCL Medical School forms part of the UCL Faculty of Medical Sciences, together with the Division of Medicine, Division of Infection and Immunity, Division of Surgery and Interventional Science, UCL Cancer Institute,
UCL Eastman Dental Institute and
UCL Wolfson Institute.
All students at UCL Medical School are also members of The Royal Free, University College and Middlesex Medical Students’ Association (RUMS MSA) - a student-led organisation that is independent of UCL Medical School.[14] RUMS has a proud and illustrious past having been formed in the wake of the merger between the three constituent medical schools in 1998. Its predecessor, The Middlesex Hospital Medical Society is reportedly the oldest student society in England having been formed in 1774.[15] Since its formation in 1998 RUMS (
RUMS) has gone from strength to strength and now provides social events, sports teams, societies, welfare services and representation to the 1200 or so medical students at UCL Medical School.
In 2011, UCLU Medical Society was established separate from RUMS MSA to provide careers advice and peer teaching for medical students, as well as special interest events. These events can be centrally organised or by various subdivisions or "sections" within the society ranging from those devoted to medical specialities such as Paediatrics or General Practice to Medical Leadership & Management and Global Health.[16][17] Since 2012, one of the most popular sections of UCLU Medical Society has been UCLU Med Soc Education, which provides
peer-to-peer and near-peer teaching events, run by medical students for other medical students. The novelty of this section is their collaboration with the medical school faculty to ensure quality and validity of the student-produced material and student-led teaching on offer.
Anita Harding, neurologist who co-authored the first paper which identified pathogenic mitochondrial DNA mutation in human disease (in
Kearn-Sayre syndrome).
^"About us". UCL Medical Society. Retrieved 12 April 2014.
^"New Members and Foreign Associates of the National Academy of Sciences: G. Marius Clore, Gregory C. Fu, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart, Ei-ichi Negishi". Angewandte Chemie International Edition. 53 (26): 6598. 2014.
doi:
10.1002/anie.201405510.
^Lindsey Fitzharris (2017). The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine. New York: Scientific American: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux.
ISBN9780374117290