St George’s and City merger set to create ‘health powerhouse’

A London medical school’s 15-year search for a merger finally looks set for a happy ending.

St George’s, University of London and City, University of London confirmed that they were “exploring the opportunity to create a new multi-faculty, combined institution”.

The strategic case for the union was approved by both university councils earlier this year and joint work is now under way to develop more detailed plans and conduct due diligence, Times Higher Education understands.

The university councils are due to meet later this summer “with a view to taking the next steps to progress the proposed merger”.

The news comes after St George’s previous plan to merge with Royal Holloway, University of London collapsed at the end of 2021. Those talks were themselves a revival of lengthy negotiations that had ended without success in 2009.

A St George’s spokesperson said that the Tooting-based medical school was “impressed by the benefits that are presented by this potential merger, born of ambition for synergies in our current work, further potential when we are combined and putting both institutions in a stronger and more resilient position to face future challenges”.

“Combination would bring a comprehensive health education capability across all the health professions to make a direct contribution to addressing the country’s health workforce challenges, addressing a key societal need for highly trained health and medical professionals,” the spokesperson said.

A City spokesperson said that the “distinctive” combination of the two institutions would “create a powerhouse for health and medical education, and for research at the frontier of practice, operating at a scale competitive with the leading research-intensive universities in London and beyond”.

“The combination would fuse St George’s health and medical expertise with City’s strengths in health, psychology, business, law, policy, technology, creativity and communications. We would create a unique environment to enable our graduates to be leaders in the world of work,” the spokesperson said.

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com