Best universities for medicine 2020

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

November 19 2019

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 a course of study for such a long period of time.

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Times Higher Education has published a ranking of the top 775 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 across 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

Like 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.

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 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.

Six 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.

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

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Best universities for medicine 2020

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2020 profile

Medicine Rank 2020	Medicine Rank 2019	University	Country/region
1	1	University of Oxford	United Kingdom
2	2	Harvard University	United States
3	3	University of Cambridge	United Kingdom
4	4	Imperial College London	United Kingdom
5	5	Stanford University	United States
6	13	University of Toronto	Canada
7	6	Johns Hopkins University	United States
8	8	UCL	United Kingdom
9	11	Yale University	United States
10	=9	Columbia University	United States
11	12	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
=12	7	University of California, Berkeley	United States
=12	14	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
14	=9	University of Melbourne	Australia
15	15	University of Pennsylvania	United States
16	18	University of Washington	United States
17	17	King’s College London	United Kingdom
18	16	Duke University	United States
19	26	National University of Singapore	Singapore
20	=20	Washington University in St Louis	United States
=21	24	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
=21	34	The University of Tokyo	Japan
23	25	McGill University	Canada
24	19	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
25	22	University of Chicago	United States
26	23	McMaster University	Canada
27	36	Kyoto University	Japan
28	29	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
29	=20	University of California, San Diego	United States
30	=30	University of British Columbia	Canada
31	=51	Peking University	China
32	27	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
33	35	Tsinghua University	China
=34	32	Emory University	United States
=34	28	Heidelberg University	Germany
36	37	Northwestern University	United States
37	41	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
38	43	Boston University	United States
39	33	University of Sydney	Australia
40	=30	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
41	39	KU Leuven	Belgium
42	45	Monash University	Australia
43	42	New York University	United States
44	46	Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Germany
45	38	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
46	49	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
47	49	Seoul National University	South Korea
48	40	LMU Munich	Germany
49	48	Technical University of Munich	Germany
50	44	Brown University	United States
51	47	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
52	59	National Taiwan University	Taiwan
=53	62	Fudan University	China
=53	NR	University of Paris	France
55	58	University of Montreal	Canada
56	=51	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
57	=62	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
58	=55	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
59	91	UNSW Sydney	Australia
=60	=55	Sorbonne University	France
=60	53	Vanderbilt University	United States
62	54	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
63	67	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
64	77	University of Southern California	United States
65	72	University of Cape Town	South Africa
66	=62	University of Queensland	Australia
67	=81	Maastricht University	Netherlands
68	101–125	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
69	66	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
70	71	University of Alberta	Canada
71	57	Australian National University	Australia
=72	78	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=72	60	Leiden University	Netherlands
74	126–150	Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU)	Japan
75	61	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
76	101–125	University of Ottawa	Canada
=77	101–125	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
=77	=79	University of Minnesota	United States
79	65	Utrecht University	Netherlands
80	76	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
81	69	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
82	101–125	University of São Paulo	Brazil
83	=73	University of Zurich	Switzerland
84	NR	Howard University	United States
=85	=79	Tufts University	United States
=85	83	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa
87	=87	Case Western Reserve University	United States
88	84	University of Tübingen	Germany
89	93	University of Florida	United States
90	96	Lund University	Sweden
91	70	Dartmouth College	United States
92	75	University of Texas at Austin	United States
93	151–175	Korea University	South Korea
=94	101–125	University of Helsinki	Finland
=94	=87	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
=96	85	University of Alabama at Birmingham	United States
=96	101–125	University of California, Davis	United States
=98	101–125	Medical University of Vienna	Austria
=98	86	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
100	=94	University of Basel	Switzerland
101–125	101–125	Aarhus University	Denmark
101–125	126–150	University of Adelaide	Australia
101–125	92	Auckland University of Technology	New Zealand
101–125	68	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
101–125	101–125	University of Bern	Switzerland
101–125	=97	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Brighton and Sussex Medical School	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	University of Canberra	Australia
101–125	101–125	University of Freiburg	Germany
101–125	126–150	Ghent University	Belgium
101–125	176–200	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
101–125	126–150	University of Iowa	United States
101–125	=81	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
101–125	151–175	Michigan State University	United States
101–125	126–150	Nanjing University	China
101–125	126–150	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
101–125	126–150	Northeastern University	United States
101–125	126–150	Osaka University	Japan
101–125	101–125	University of Oslo	Norway
101–125	176–200	Penn State (Main campus)	United States
101–125	151–175	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
101–125	=73	Uppsala University	Sweden
101–125	90	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
101–125	89	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Zhejiang University	China
126–150	101–125	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Anglia Ruskin University	United Kingdom
126–150	201–250	University of Arizona	United States
126–150	=97	University of Auckland	New Zealand
126–150	101–125	University of Bergen	Norway
126–150	101–125	University of Bologna	Italy
126–150	251–300	Cairo University	Egypt
126–150	126–150	University of California, Irvine	United States
126–150	126–150	University of Cologne	Germany
126–150	126–150	George Washington University	United States
126–150	101–125	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
126–150	151–175	Jordan University of Science and Technology	Jordan
126–150	176–200	Laval University	Canada
126–150	126–150	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
126–150	251–300	Mahidol University	Thailand
126–150	151–175	University of Milan	Italy
126–150	126–150	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of the Philippines	Philippines
126–150	126–150	St George’s, University of London	United Kingdom
126–150	=99	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
126–150	151–175	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
126–150	151–175	Sun Yat-sen University	China
126–150	101–125	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
126–150	101–125	Ulm University	Germany
126–150	151–175	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
126–150	126–150	University of Western Australia	Australia
126–150	101–125	Western University	Canada
151–175	201–250	Autonomous University of Madrid	Spain
151–175	101–125	University of Calgary	Canada
151–175	101–125	University of Canterbury	New Zealand
151–175	126–150	University of Cincinnati	United States
151–175	101–125	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	University of Geneva	Switzerland
151–175	201–250	Huazhong University of Science and Technology	China
151–175	101–125	University of Kiel	Germany
151–175	176–200	Metropolitan Autonomous University	Mexico
151–175	151–175	University of Miami	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Otago	New Zealand
151–175	=94	Paris-Sud University	France
151–175	176–200	Pontifical Javeriana University	Colombia
151–175	176–200	Queen’s University	Canada
151–175	126–150	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
151–175	151–175	Sichuan University	China
151–175	201–250	Taipei Medical University	Taiwan
151–175	201–250	Tohoku University	Japan
151–175	151–175	United Arab Emirates University	United Arab Emirates
151–175	176–200	University College Cork	Republic of Ireland
151–175	151–175	University of Utah	United States
151–175	=99	University of York	United Kingdom
176–200	151–175	University of Barcelona	Spain
176–200	251–300	Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté (UBFC)	France
176–200	176–200	University at Buffalo	United States
176–200	301–400	Claude Bernard University Lyon 1	France
176–200	151–175	University of Crete	Greece
176–200	151–175	University of Duisburg-Essen	Germany
176–200	176–200	George Mason University	United States
176–200	151–175	Grenoble Alpes University	France
176–200	151–175	University of Hamburg	Germany
176–200	201–250	Indiana University	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Lausanne	Switzerland
176–200	151–175	Université Libre de Bruxelles	Belgium
176–200	201–250	Macquarie University	Australia
176–200	251–300	University of Malaya	Malaysia
176–200	251–300	Mansoura University	Egypt
176–200	201–250	University of Maryland, College Park	United States
176–200	NR	Nova Southeastern University	United States
176–200	NR	University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan	Japan
176–200	126–150	Oregon Health and Science University	United States
176–200	151–175	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
176–200	151–175	University of Rochester	United States
176–200	201–250	Suez Canal University	Egypt
176–200	176–200	Tulane University	United States
176–200	251–300	Wuhan University	China
176–200	151–175	University of Würzburg	Germany