Best universities for medicine 2018

Find the best universities for medicine using Times Higher Education’s World University Rankings data

November 8 2017

The study of medicine varies greatly around the world. In the US, medicine is studied in graduate school after completing an undergraduate degree that is not directly related to medicine.

Elsewhere, such as in the UK, students can enrol for undergraduate clinical degrees.

Wherever you study, almost all clinical degrees span a good number of years – more than non-clinical courses.

So it’s best to ensure that you make a wise choice when you commit yourself to an institution for such a long period of time.

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Times Higher Education has published a ranking of the top 500 universities for clinical, pre-clinical and health studies, featuring colleges in more than 50 countries worldwide.

The ranking uses the same methodology as the World University Rankings, but with more weight on citations and slightly less on teaching and research metrics. The full methodology can be found here.

Scroll down for a full list of degrees included in the clinical subject ranking of top universities, and a guide of what you can do with them.

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Top 5 universities for clinical studies and health sciences

1. University of Oxford

Medicine at the University of Oxford is a traditional course, split into pre-clinical and clinical stages.

In the first few years, students are taught theoretically with little patient contact, and in later years they move to the clinical phase, spending much more time at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

About 150 students are admitted on to the course each year, and another 30 on to a graduate course that condenses medical studies into just four years.

The university has two main libraries for medicine and clinical studies, one providing resources for the pre-clinical elements of the course and another focusing on healthcare.

In addition to its distinctive course, Oxford offers students the experience of college life, where social events and small tutorials take place.

=2. University of Cambridge

As at the University of Oxford, students can enrol in an undergraduate medicine degree at the University of Cambridge.

Graduates also have several options to study medicine, either on an accelerated graduate programme or a condensed version of the pre-clinical and clinical courses.

There are six applicants per place on the medical courses, and about 260 are accepted overall.

Half the graduates of Cambridge’s medical degrees become general practitioners, and almost all will work in the National Health Service in the UK.

Entrance to the medicine degree requires excellent secondary qualifications and high scores on the BMAT test.

Cambridge students, particularly medical students, have a busy schedule, juggling studies, college social events and a variety of recreational activities.

=2. Harvard University

The graduate medical school of Harvard University has three missions: to educate, research and provide clinical care.

Founded in 1782, it is the third-oldest medical school in the US.

Faculty of the school also teach in other science departments at Harvard, and work in clinical departments at some of the hospitals affiliated to the university.

There are four main teaching hospitals, all around the Boston area.

Harvard has introduced problem-based learning to the curriculum. There is also a specialised programme, accepting only 30 applicants each year, which focuses on biomedical research.

Medical students at Harvard belong to one of five societies named after alumni. Students work in small groups within the society, compete in sports competitions and attend social events.

=4. Imperial College London

The medical programme at Imperial College London offers a range of teaching approaches, from traditional theoretical classes to innovative and hands-on experience.

From the very first term, students have direct contact with patients, unlike at other more traditional universities in the UK.

The six-year undergraduate qualification in medicine also includes a bachelor of science, in addition to the MBBS.

Like both Oxford and Cambridge, Imperial’s courses are heavily scientific, with an emphasis not only on clinical practice but on research techniques.

Entry requirements are high; most accepted students will have top grades in chemistry, biology and a third subject, and achieve a high score in the BMAT exam. The application process also includes an interview.

Imperial is one of the most international institutions in the UK, but only a few overseas students are accepted on to the medical programme each year.

=4. Stanford University

The graduate school at Stanford University provides master’s and PhD programmes to students who wish to further their medical training.

Seven Nobel prizewinners, 31 members of the National Academy of Sciences, and 42 members of the Institute of Medicine are among the current faculty at the school.

Researchers across Stanford Medicine are undertaking research across a number of different areas including cancer, immunology, genetics and neuroscience among others.

The school also provides healthcare for adults and children, with a dedicated centre for children.

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Best universities for medicine 2018

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2018 profile

Medicine Rank 2018	University	Country
1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
=2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
=2	Harvard University	United States
=4	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
=4	Stanford University	United States
6	Johns Hopkins University	United States
7	University of California, Berkeley	United States
8	Columbia University	United States
9	University of Melbourne	Australia
10	University of Pennsylvania	United States
11	Duke University	United States
12	UCL	United Kingdom
=13	Washington University in St Louis	United States
=13	Yale University	United States
15	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
16	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
=17	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=17	King’s College London	United Kingdom
19	University of Toronto	Canada
20	University of Washington	United States
21	University of California, San Diego	United States
22	University of Chicago	United States
23	McMaster University	Canada
24	University of Michigan	United States
25	Tsinghua University	China
26	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
27	McGill University	Canada
28	National University of Singapore	Singapore
29	Northwestern University	United States
30	Heidelberg University	Germany
31	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
32	University of Tokyo	Japan
33	Boston University	United States
34	University of British Columbia	Canada
35	LMU Munich	Germany
36	Emory University	United States
37	University of Sydney	Australia
38	Brown University	United States
39	New York University	United States
=40	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
=40	Kyoto University	Japan
42	University of Pittsburgh	United States
43	KU Leuven	Belgium
44	Vanderbilt University	United States
45	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=46	Monash University	Australia
=46	Technical University of Munich	Germany
48	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
49	University of Minnesota	United States
50	Peking University	China
51	Leiden University	Netherlands
52	University of Queensland	Australia
53	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
54	Seoul National University	South Korea
55	Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Germany
56	Utrecht University	Netherlands
57	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
58	University of Southern California	United States
59	University of Montreal	Canada
60	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
61	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
62	Fudan University	China
63	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
64	Uppsala University	Sweden
65	Ohio State University	United States
66	Dartmouth College	United States
67	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
68	Tufts University	United States
69	Maastricht University	Netherlands
70	University of Cape Town	South Africa
71	University of California, Davis	United States
72	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
73	Australian National University	Australia
74	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
75	University of Texas at Austin	United States
76	University of Basel	Switzerland
77	University of Alberta	Canada
=78	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
=78	University of Tübingen	Germany
80	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
81	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
=82	University of Auckland	New Zealand
=82	University of New South Wales	Australia
84	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
85	University of Bern	Switzerland
=86	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
=86	University of Florida	United States
=86	University of Zurich	Switzerland
=89	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=89	Lund University	Sweden
91	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
92	Osaka University	Japan
93	University of Freiburg	Germany
94	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
=95	University of Calgary	Canada
=95	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
=95	Ghent University	Belgium
=95	Paris-Sud University	France
=95	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
100	University of Kiel	Germany