Best Foreign Medical Schools

The Royal Free & University College Medical School in London

The Royal Free and University College Medical School (RF&UCMS) was created by the merger of the two separate medical schools in August 1998. The School also includes a number of world famous institutions, including the Institute of Child Health (Great Ormond Street), the Institute of Neurology (The National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery), the Ear Institute and the Institute of Ophthalmology (Moorfields Eye Hospital). The RF&UCMS is now certainly one of the most important and prestigious Schools of Medicine in Europe.


A major development is the new sixteen-storey UCL Hospital, which opened in September 2005. It provides excellent healthcare facilities, as well as being a centre of international importance for clinical teaching and research. The RF&UCMS also houses the Wolfson Institute for Biomedical Research, opened by the Princess Royal in April 2000. This incorporates the teaching facilities for the medical students in the refurbished University Hospital Cruciform Building.

The Medical School exists on three main campuses. The Bloomsbury campus incorporates the Faculties of Life Sciences and Biomedical Sciences and has as its clinical facilities University College Hospital, the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, the Heart Hospital and the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital. The Hampstead campus is the site of the Royal Free Hospital, with a wide range of academic departments including the department of Primary Care and Population Science. The Archway campus in Highgate is the site of the Centre for Health Informatics and the Academic Centre for Medical Education (ACME). It has the Whittington Hospital as its clinical facility. A new undergraduate teaching centre opened at the Whittington in 2007. Clinical teaching also takes place in many Associated University District Hospitals and in a range of general practice and community settings.

Students who enter the Medical School will enjoy the considerable advantages of being members of a world-class medical institution, with many opportunities for exciting specialist clinical attachments and special study components throughout the course.

The Medical School is based on a strong academic tradition. Among past and present staff are Nobel Prize winners (Huxley, Hill and Katz) and numerous Fellows of the Royal Society and the Academy of Medical Sciences. Among UCL’s teachers are those at the forefront of international research in the basic medical sciences and clinical medicine. Being taught by people of such distinction provides excitement and a challenge that will add something to the particular quality of your time at UCL.

* One of the top ranking universities in the UK for research in basic medical sciences and clinical medicine. * A medical school truly integrated into the multifaculty institution of UCL with all the associated benefits in terms of sporting, cultural and social facilities.
* Superbly equipped dissection suite and new teaching and learning facilities.
* Probably the best intercalated BSc opportunities in Britain.
* Situated in the pleasant districts of Bloomsbury, Hampstead and Highgate, yet in the very heart of the Capital.
* A vibrant, dynamic and friendly place in which to be a student.
* Strongly supportive environment with walk-in and welfare clinics to address medical students’ concerns.

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