APPLYING TO MEDICAL SCHOOL

Best Medical Schools UK

WRITTEN BY
Medistudents Team
November 8, 2023

What are the Best Medical Schools in the UK?

Understandably, the decision about which medical school to attend is a big one; if you’re beginning to think about your application and where to choose to study, you may want to start by comparing the best medical schools in the UK and consider which will be the right fit for you. Your choice of university will not only affect the teaching you’ll receive and the learning opportunities available, it’ll also dictate where you’ll live while you study and your experience as a whole.

League table rankings alone will not tell you everything you need to know about whether a medical school is right for you. However, it’s a useful way to narrow down your choices and identify potential universities that you may want to visit and learn more about.

The most important thing to bear in mind when comparing medical schools using league tables, is not which are ranked the highest, but which are the most suitable for you. Consider what’s important to you: is it the entry requirements, the student support available, student satisfaction with the course or is it something else? All of this information is available within medical school rankings, so look closely at areas which are meaningful to you, rather than just focusing on the overall ranking of the university.

Medicine League Tables

The other thing to be aware of when looking at medical school rankings, is that different league tables share different opinions about which are the best medical schools in the UK. This is simply a result of using different criteria to score medical schools, so again it’s worth considering the individual scoring for each university against criteria that is important to you, and not just looking at the overall ranking.

The different criteria used can affect the ranking dramatically in some cases, as you’ll see from the example below, of the top ten medical schools from two of the most popular leagues tables, The Guardian’s Best UK universities for medicine – league table and The Complete University Guide’s Medicine Subject League Table 2024.

Top 10 Medical Schools UK

The Guardian’s Best UK universities for medicine – league table and The Complete University Guide’s Medicine Subject League Table 2024 have the following as their top ten medical schools for 2024 entry:

Ranking The Guardian The Complete University Guide
1 Aberdeen Cambridge
2 Cambridge Oxford
3 St Andrews Glasgow
4 Swansea Imperial College London
5 Edinburgh UCL
6 Keele Bristol
7 Imperial College London Queen’s, Belfast
8 Oxford Edinburgh
9 Glasgow Dundee
10 Brighton Sussex Medical School Leicester

What Criteria is used for Medicine Rankings?

Both The Complete University Guide and The Guardian rank medical schools using an Overall Score / Guardian Score, which combines each university's scores across a range of criteria. The main difference between The Guardian’s and The Complete University Guide’s ranking is the criteria used to create their overall scores. Whilst both include entry criteria, student satisfaction and career opportunities following graduation, The Complete University Guide also focuses on research quality and intensity, while The Guardian includes information more directly linked to students, for example the percentage of students that progress from first to second year and the value added to their learning.

Below is a full breakdown of The Guardian’s criteria used to score medical schools and an explanation of what each area refers to:

Guardian Score/100 An overall rating based on all of the criteria presented.
Satisfied with Teaching* A rating for the quality of teaching on the course.
Satisfied with Feedback* A rating for the quality of feedback and assessment.
Student to Staff Ratio The number of students per member of teaching staff.
Spend per Student/10 A rating out of ten for the money spent per student, excluding academic staff costs.
Average Entry Traffic The typical UCAS scores of young entrants (under 21) to the department.
Value Added Score/10** A comparison of students' degree scores with their entry qualifications, to show how effectively they’re taught.
Career after 15 Months The percentage of graduates who are in graduate-level jobs or further study at professional or HE level, within fifteen months.
Continuation The percentage of first year students who continue into their second year of study.

* The scores for Satisfied with Teaching and Satisfied with Feedback are taken from the latest National Student Survey (NSS), which is completed by final year students to provide an understanding of student experience at different institutions.

** For 2024, no details are provided in The Guardian’s breakdown for the ‘value added’, so we have omitted this from the table below.

Breakdown of Medical School Rankings

Below is the full list from The Guardian’s Best UK universities for medicine – league table.

This is also followed by a breakdown of the best medical schools based on individual criteria (for example student satisfaction) to help you make the right choice, based on what matters most to you.

2024 Ranking University Guardian Score /100 Satisfied with Teaching % Satisfied with Feedback % Student to Staff Ratio Spend per Student /10 Average Entry Traffic Career after 15 months % Continuation %
1 Aberdeen 100 92.9 67 7.5 3 244 99 98.4
2 Cambridge 99.3 n/a n/a 7.8 10 213 100 99.6
3 St Andrews 93.3 95.7 76.5 12.6 4 216 97 100
4 Swansea 89.1 89.6 68.8 9 5 n/a 99 98.3
5 Edinburgh 89 86.4 51.7 8.6 9 240 100 98.2
6 Keele 88.3 91.5 66.1 7.5 n/a 174 99 99.7
7 Imperial College 87.3 88.8 57.5 7.6 8 193 100 98
8 Oxford 84.8 n/a n/a 10.4 10 205 99 97.2
9 Glasgow 82.9 85.8 59.6 10.5 3 245 100 97.3
10 Brighton Sussex Medical School 82.4 89.1 67.5 n/a n/a 175 99 97
11 Bristol 80.1 87.6 63 9.5 6 189 100 99.2
12 UCL 79.2 84.5 55.1 7.8 5 190 99 99.6
13 Queen’s, Belfast 78.8 93.1 71 11.5 3 193 100 99.2
14 Cardiff 78.4 88.8 64.5 9.8 7 191 99 97.5
15 Hull York Medical School 78.1 79.4 54.1 6.1 9 167 100 98.5
16 Dundee 76.7 87.2 52.6 11 4 250 100 97
17 Leicester 75.5 90.8 65.8 10.4 4 168 100 98.8
18 Newcastle 74.1 86.2 61.5 8.7 8 180 100 96.2
19 Sunderland 72.9 n/a n/a 9.1 6 168 n/a 100
20 Liverpool 72.5 82.4 54.2 8.4 7 171 100 99.1
21 Leeds 69.2 84.3 53.7 9.1 4 175 100 99.2
22 Queen Mary 67.7 83.3 56.6 10.6 5 187 100 98
23 UEA 67.5 79 50 7.8 3 170 100 99
24 Plymouth 66.7 88.2 60.5 11.4 4 170 100 99
25 Sheffield 65.9 85.6 58.6 11.4 4 179 100 99.7
26 Birmingham 65.4 82.6 58.8 9.7 3 172 100 99.4
27 King’s College London 64.6 82.7 52.6 11.3 7 181 100 98.9
28 Lancaster 64.3 90.7 70.7 13.6 3 175 100 97
29 Warwick 62.3 78.8 60.2 9.7 5 144 100 96.9
30 Southampton 62 76.3 51.6 8.8 5 169 100 98.4
31 Manchester 61.8 74.4 55.7 10.1 5 176 100 99.2
32 Exeter 60.6 82.4 53.8 10.2 4 168 100 98.4
33 Buckingham 54.8 79.3 46.6 n/a n/a 147 100 95.6
34 Nottingham 51.3 80.9 38.3 10.7 4 167 100 98.4
35 St George’s 48.2 75.3 43.3 12.2 4 177 100 98.4
36 Aston 41.9 n/a n/a 14.2 4 162 n/a 97
37 Central Lancashire 36.2 69.3 52 13.4 3 151 n/a 90.6

The following universities also teach medicine but are not ranked within The Guardian’s league table:

  • Anglia Ruskin
  • Brunel
  • Canterbury Christ Church
  • Chester
  • Edge Hill
  • Kent
  • Ulster
  • South Wales

Best Universities for Medicine Based on Student Satisfaction

From the breakdown of the criteria you’ll notice that certain areas – for example the percentage of first year students who continue their study into second year and the percentage of graduates who are in graduate-level jobs or further study at professional or HE level, within fifteen months – have consistent high scores across all of the universities. However, areas such as the student satisfaction have a much wider range, and therefore there are clear distinctions between universities.

Using the latest National Student Survey (NSS) results, The Guardian’s league table breaks student satisfaction down into the following areas:

  1. Satisfied with Teaching
  2. Satisfied with Feedback

Below are details of the medical schools which students scored highest for the teaching and the feedback provided.

The Highest Scoring Medical Schools for the Criteria: Satisfied with Teaching

Medical School Rating / Percentage How does it compare in other areas of student satisfaction?
St Andrews 95.7% Also 1st for satisfied with feedback
Queen's, Belfast 93.1% Also 2nd for satisfied with feedback
Aberdeen 92.9% Scored slightly lower for satisfied with feedback (position 6th)
Keele 91.5% Scored slightly lower for satisfied with feedback (position 7th)
Leicester 90.8% Scored slightly lower for satisfied with feedback (position 8th)

The Highest Scoring Medical Schools for the Criteria: Satisfied with Feedback

Medical School Rating / Percentage How does it compare in other areas of student satisfaction?
St Andrews 76.5% Also 1st for satisfied with teaching
Queen's, Belfast 71% Also 2nd for satisfied with teaching
Lancaster 70.7% Scored slightly lower for satisfied with teaching (position 6th but only 0.1% behind 5th)
Swansea 68.8% Scored slightly lower for satisfied with teaching (position 7th)
Brighton Sussex Medical School 67.5% Scored slightly lower for satisfied with teaching (position 8th)

The Best for Value Added

Usually The Guardian’s league table ranks value added based on a comparison of students’ entry qualifications with their degree score to measure effectiveness of teaching. However, since 2022 this information has not been included in their rankings.

The following medical schools were rated highly for the value added through effective teaching within the 2021 rankings:

  1. Swansea – rating 10/10
  2. Warwick – rating 10/10
  3. Brighton Sussex Medical School – rating 9/10
  4. Leeds – rating 9/10
  5. Queen's, Belfast – rating 8/10
  6. Keele – rating 8/10
  7. Lancaster – rating 8/10
  8. Hull York Medical School – rating 8/10

While league rankings are not everything, they can provide you with some useful information, alongside the entry requirements, the location and course specific information, to help you to make a decision on what the best medical school for you will be.

Entry Admission Tests

Most of the medical schools in this list require you to complete the University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT) as part of their entry criteria. This is a computer-based exam designed to assess an applicant’s mental ability, characteristics, attitudes and professional behaviours required for medicine.

There are 5 sections in the UCAT that you need to prepare for: Abstract Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, Situational Judgement and Verbal Reasoning. Our AI-powered adaptive UCAT question bank will help you to prepare for all areas effectively and efficiently. With an AI-powered algorithm which carefully selects questions for you, based on your strengths and weaknesses within the syllabus, it ensures that you’re answering questions which will make the biggest difference to your UCAT preparation. The dashboard (below) also allows you to easily track your progress in each section and subsection of the exam, with your calculated skill level, total number of questions answered, number of questions answered correctly and response time for each.

We've written a UCAT complete guide and UCAT practice test to provide you with everything you need to know about this admissions exam.

You can also find lots more advice on medicine entry requirements, completing your personal statement and medical interviews on our website, to support you with the whole application process.