Best universities for medicine 2019

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

November 7 2018

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 721 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 on 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. 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.

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3. 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 (NHS) 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.

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.

5. 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 2019

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2019 profile

Medicine Rank 2019	Medicine Rank 2018	University	Country/Region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	=2	Harvard University	United States
3	=2	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	=4	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
5	=4	Stanford University	United States
6	6	Johns Hopkins University	United States
7	7	University of California, Berkeley	United States
8	12	UCL	United Kingdom
=9	8	Columbia University	United States
=9	9	University of Melbourne	Australia
11	=13	Yale University	United States
12	16	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
13	19	University of Toronto	Canada
14	15	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
15	10	University of Pennsylvania	United States
16	11	Duke University	United States
17	=17	King’s College London	United Kingdom
18	20	University of Washington	United States
19	=17	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=20	21	University of California, San Diego	United States
=20	=13	Washington University in St Louis	United States
22	22	University of Chicago	United States
23	23	McMaster University	Canada
24	24	University of Michigan	United States
25	27	McGill University	Canada
26	28	National University of Singapore	Singapore
27	26	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
28	30	Heidelberg University	Germany
29	31	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=30	34	University of British Columbia	Canada
=30	NR	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
32	36	Emory University	United States
33	37	University of Sydney	Australia
34	32	The University of Tokyo	Japan
35	25	Tsinghua University	China
36	=40	Kyoto University	Japan
37	29	Northwestern University	United States
38	=40	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
39	43	KU Leuven	Belgium
40	35	LMU Munich	Germany
41	57	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
42	39	New York University	United States
43	33	Boston University	United States
44	38	Brown University	United States
45	=46	Monash University	Australia
46	55	Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Germany
47	42	University of Pittsburgh	United States
48	=46	Technical University of Munich	Germany
49	54	Seoul National University	South Korea
49	63	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
=51	53	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=51	50	Peking University	China
53	44	Vanderbilt University	United States
54	45	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=55	48	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
=55	NR	Sorbonne University	France
57	73	Australian National University	Australia
58	59	University of Montreal	Canada
59	81	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
60	51	Leiden University	Netherlands
61	67	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
=62	72	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
=62	52	University of Queensland	Australia
62	62	Fudan University	China
65	56	Utrecht University	Netherlands
66	60	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
67	74	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
68	=78	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
69	65	Ohio State University	United States
70	66	Dartmouth College	United States
71	77	University of Alberta	Canada
72	70	University of Cape Town	South Africa
=73	64	Uppsala University	Sweden
=73	=86	University of Zurich	Switzerland
75	75	University of Texas at Austin	United States
76	61	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
77	58	University of Southern California	United States
78	=89	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=79	49	University of Minnesota Twin Cities	United States
=79	68	Tufts University	United States
=81	80	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
=81	69	Maastricht University	Netherlands
83	101–125	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa
84	=78	University of Tübingen	Germany
85	101–125	University of Alabama at Birmingham	United States
86	101–125	University of Virginia	United States
=87	101–125	Case Western Reserve University	United States
=87	=95	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
89	151–175	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
90	84	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
91	=82	University of New South Wales	Australia
92	101–125	Auckland University of Technology	New Zealand
93	=86	University of Florida	United States
=94	76	University of Basel	Switzerland
=94	=95	Paris-Sud University	France
96	=89	Lund University	Sweden
=97	=82	University of Auckland	New Zealand
=97	101–125	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
=99	94	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
=99	101–125	University of York	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Aarhus University	Denmark
101–125	126–150	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Bergen	Norway
101–125	85	University of Bern	Switzerland
101–125	126–150	University of Bologna	Italy
101–125	=95	University of Calgary	Canada
101–125	71	University of California, Davis	United States
101–125	151–175	University of Canterbury	New Zealand
101–125	=86	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
101–125	93	University of Freiburg	Germany
101–125	101–125	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
101–125	101–125	University of Helsinki	Finland
101–125	101–125	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
101–125	100	University of Kiel	Germany
101–125	126–150	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
101–125	101–125	Medical University of Vienna	Austria
101–125	91	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of Oslo	Norway
101–125	151–175	University of Ottawa	Canada
101–125	126–150	University of São Paulo	Brazil
101–125	101–125	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
101–125	126–150	Ulm University	Germany
101–125	101–125	Western University	Canada
101–125	151–175	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
101–125	126–150	Zhejiang University	China
126–150	126–150	University of Adelaide	Australia
126–150	151–175	Anglia Ruskin University	United Kingdom
126–150	201–250	Brighton and Sussex Medical School	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of California, Irvine	United States
126–150	=95	Cardiff University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Cincinnati	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Cologne	Germany
126–150	101–125	University of Geneva	Switzerland
126–150	151–175	George Washington University	United States
126–150	=95	Ghent University	Belgium
126–150	101–125	University of Iowa	United States
126–150	126–150	King Abdulaziz University	Saudi Arabia
126–150	126–150	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
126–150	NR	Nanjing University	China
126–150	126–150	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
126–150	101–125	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	Northeastern University	United States
126–150	101–125	Oregon Health and Science University	United States
126–150	92	Osaka University	Japan
126–150	101–125	University of Otago	New Zealand
126–150	201–250	University of the Philippines	Philippines
126–150	101–125	Pompeu Fabra University	Spain
126–150	151–175	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	St George’s, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	176–200	Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU)	Japan
126–150	101–125	University of Western Australia	Australia
151–175	NR	Arizona State University	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Barcelona	Spain
151–175	251–300	University of Bath	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	University of Canberra	Australia
151–175	151–175	University of Crete	Greece
151–175	151–175	University of Duisburg-Essen	Germany
151–175	126–150	Georgetown University	United States
151–175	176–200	Grenoble Alpes University	France
151–175	126–150	University of Hamburg	Germany
151–175	176–200	Jordan University of Science and Technology	Jordan
151–175	201–250	Korea University	South Korea
151–175	151–175	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
151–175	101–125	University of Miami	United States
151–175	126–150	Michigan State University	United States
151–175	176–200	University of Milan	Italy
151–175	176–200	Paris Diderot University – Paris 7	France
151–175	101–125	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
151–175	126–150	University of Rochester	United States
151–175	126–150	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
151–175	201–250	Sichuan University	China
151–175	176–200	University of St Andrews	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
151–175	126–150	Technical University of Denmark	Denmark
151–175	201–250	United Arab Emirates University	United Arab Emirates
151–175	126–150	University of Utah	United States
151–175	151–175	Vita-Salute San Raffaele University	Italy
151–175	151–175	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
151–175	126–150	University of Würzburg	Germany
151-175	201–250	Sun Yat-sen University	China
176–200	126–150	University of Bonn	Germany
176–200	176–200	University at Buffalo	United States
176–200	176–200	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
176–200	176–200	University of Exeter	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	George Mason University	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
176–200	151–175	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
176–200	151–175	Laval University	Canada
176–200	176–200	University of Lorraine	France
176–200	301–400	Metropolitan Autonomous University	Mexico
176–200	201–250	University of Navarra	Spain
176–200	NR	Pennsylvania State University	United States
176–200	201–250	Pontifical Javeriana University	Colombia
176–200	151–175	Queen’s University	Canada
176–200	201–250	Swansea University	United Kingdom
176–200	126–150	TU Dresden	Germany
176–200	201–250	Tulane University	United States
176–200	151–175	Umeå University	Sweden
176–200	251–300	University College Cork	Republic of Ireland

Editor's note: This page was updated on 22 November 2018 to reflect minor changes in the positions of a small number of universities. More information can be found here.

Click here to view the top 721 universities for medical degrees