Best universities for medicine 2024

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

October 28 2020

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 856 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.

Best universities worldwide

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Top five 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. In the course’s 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, as well as working 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, that 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 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 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 will 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 at 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 2021

Click each institution to view its World University Rankings 2021 profile

Medicine Rank 2021	Medicine Rank 2020	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	6	University of Toronto	Canada
7	9	Yale University	United States
8	7	Johns Hopkins University	United States
9	8	UCL	United Kingdom
10	=12	Karolinska Institute	Sweden
=11	26	McMaster University	Canada
=11	14	University of Melbourne	Australia
13	=12	University of California, Berkeley	United States
14	11	University of California, Los Angeles	United States
15	10	Columbia University	United States
16	17	King’s College London	United Kingdom
17	15	University of Pennsylvania	United States
18	19	National University of Singapore	Singapore
19	18	Duke University	United States
20	16	University of Washington	United States
=21	24	University of Edinburgh	United Kingdom
=21	=21	University of Michigan-Ann Arbor	United States
23	27	Kyoto University	Japan
=24	25	The University of Chicago	United States
=24	23	McGill University	Canada
26	20	Washington University in St Louis	United States
27	=21	The University of Tokyo	Japan
28	28	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
29	31	Peking University	China
30	29	University of California, San Diego	United States
31	42	Monash University	Australia
32	33	Tsinghua University	China
33	32	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill	United States
34	36	Northwestern University	United States
35	39	University of Sydney	Australia
36	=34	Heidelberg University	Germany
37	47	Seoul National University	South Korea
38	38	Boston University	United States
39	30	University of British Columbia	Canada
40	40	ETH Zurich	Switzerland
41	37	Sungkyunkwan University (SKKU)	South Korea
42	=34	Emory University	United States
43	44	Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin	Germany
44	=53	Fudan University	China
45	48	LMU Munich	Germany
=46	41	KU Leuven	Belgium
=46	43	New York University	United States
48	52	National Taiwan University (NTU)	Taiwan
49	46	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong
50	51	University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh campus	United States
51	64	University of Southern California	United States
=52	50	Brown University	United States
=52	62	University of Manchester	United Kingdom
=54	56	University of Glasgow	United Kingdom
=54	66	The University of Queensland	Australia
56	49	Technical University of Munich	Germany
57	59	UNSW Sydney	Australia
58	=60	Vanderbilt University	United States
59	57	University of Liverpool	United Kingdom
60	58	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands
61	68	Yonsei University (Seoul campus)	South Korea
62	45	Erasmus University Rotterdam	Netherlands
63	75	University of Bristol	United Kingdom
64	63	Queen Mary University of London	United Kingdom
65	55	University of Montreal	Canada
=66	65	University of Cape Town	South Africa
=66	=60	Sorbonne University	France
=68	=77	University of Minnesota	United States
=68	=53	University of Paris	France
=70	67	Maastricht University	Netherlands
=70	83	University of Zurich	Switzerland
72	=72	Leiden University	Netherlands
73	71	Australian National University	Australia
74	82	University of São Paulo	Brazil
75	88	University of Tübingen	Germany
76	80	University of Copenhagen	Denmark
77	76	University of Ottawa	Canada
78	70	University of Alberta	Canada
79	74	Tokyo Medical and Dental University (TMDU)	Japan
80	69	University of Wisconsin-Madison	United States
81	101–125	Zhejiang University	China
82	81	Ohio State University (Main campus)	United States
83	=72	University of Groningen	Netherlands
=84	89	University of Florida	United States
=84	101–125	Wageningen University & Research	Netherlands
=86	=96	University of California, Davis	United States
=86	87	Case Western Reserve University	United States
=86	=85	Tufts University	United States
89	=77	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	United States
=90	84	Howard University	United States
=90	93	Korea University	South Korea
92	101–125	University of Bern	Switzerland
93	=94	University of Sheffield	United Kingdom
=94	=94	University of Helsinki	Finland
=94	=85	University of the Witwatersrand	South Africa
=96	101–125	Northeastern University	United States
=96	101–125	Shanghai Jiao Tong University	China
=98	91	Dartmouth College	United States
=98	79	Utrecht University	Netherlands
=100	101–125	University of Freiburg	Germany
=100	126–150	University of Nottingham	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Aarhus University	Denmark
101–125	101–125	University of Adelaide	Australia
101–125	=96	University of Alabama at Birmingham	United States
101–125	101–125	Auckland University of Technology	New Zealand
101–125	176–200	University of Barcelona	Spain
101–125	100	University of Basel	Switzerland
101–125	101–125	University of Birmingham	United Kingdom
101–125	101–125	Brighton and Sussex Medical School	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Cairo University	Egypt
101–125	101–125	University of Canberra	Australia
101–125	101–125	Ghent University	Belgium
101–125	101–125	University of Illinois at Chicago	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Iowa	United States
101–125	101–125	University of Leicester	United Kingdom
101–125	90	Lund University	Sweden
101–125	=98	Medical University of Vienna	Austria
101–125	101–125	Nanyang Technological University, Singapore	Singapore
101–125	101–125	Osaka University	Japan
101–125	176–200	University of Rochester	United States
101–125	126–150	St George’s, University of London	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	University of Southampton	United Kingdom
101–125	126–150	Sun Yat-sen University	China
101–125	151–175	Tohoku University	Japan
101–125	101–125	Uppsala University	Sweden
126–150	126–150	University of Aberdeen	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	Anglia Ruskin University ARU	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	University of Auckland	New Zealand
126–150	126–150	University of Bologna	Italy
126–150	151–175	University of Calgary	Canada
126–150	126–150	University of California, Irvine	United States
126–150	151–175	University of Geneva	Switzerland
126–150	126–150	University of Gothenburg	Sweden
126–150	126–150	Jordan University of Science and Technology	Jordan
126–150	126–150	Université Catholique de Louvain	Belgium
126–150	126–150	Mahidol University	Thailand
126–150	176–200	Mansoura University	Egypt
126–150	126–150	Newcastle University	United Kingdom
126–150	101–125	University of Oslo	Norway
126–150	151–175	University of Otago	New Zealand
126–150	NR	Paris-Saclay University	France
126–150	126–150	University of the Philippines	Philippines
126–150	126–150	Stellenbosch University	South Africa
126–150	151–175	Taipei Medical University	Taiwan
126–150	92	University of Texas at Austin	United States
126–150	176–200	Tulane University	United States
126–150	=98	University of Virginia (Main campus)	United States
126–150	126–150	Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam	Netherlands
126–150	101–125	University of Warwick	United Kingdom
126–150	126–150	The University of Western Australia	Australia
126–150	126–150	Western University	Canada
151–175	126–150	University of Bergen	Norway
151–175	151–175	University of Canterbury	New Zealand
151–175	NR	Catholic University of Portugal	Portugal
151–175	126–150	University of Cologne	Germany
151–175	151–175	University of Dundee	United Kingdom
151–175	201–250	University of Erlangen-Nuremberg	Germany
151–175	126–150	George Washington University	United States
151–175	NR	Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences	Iran
151–175	201–250	La Trobe University	Australia
151–175	126–150	Laval University	Canada
151–175	151–175	Metropolitan Autonomous University	Mexico
151–175	101–125	Michigan State University	United States
151–175	126–150	University of Milan	Italy
151–175	101–125	Nanjing University	China
151–175	176–200	University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan	Japan
151–175	NR	Oklahoma State University	United States
151–175	NR	University of Peradeniya	Sri Lanka
151–175	151–175	Pontifical Javeriana University	Colombia
151–175	151–175	Queen’s University	Canada
151–175	151–175	Queen’s University Belfast	United Kingdom
151–175	126–150	Trinity College Dublin	Republic of Ireland
151–175	126–150	Ulm University	Germany
151–175	151–175	United Arab Emirates University	United Arab Emirates
151–175	176–200	University of Würzburg	Germany
151–175	151–175	University of York	United Kingdom
176–200	251–300	Ain Shams University	Egypt
176–200	101–125	Autonomous University of Barcelona	Spain
176–200	201–250	University of Bonn	Germany
176–200	201–250	China Medical University, Taiwan	Taiwan
176–200	151–175	University of Cincinnati	United States
176–200	201–250	University of East Anglia	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	George Mason University	United States
176–200	176–200	University of Hamburg	Germany
176–200	201–250	Kyung Hee University	South Korea
176–200	126–150	University of Leeds	United Kingdom
176–200	176–200	Macquarie University	Australia
176–200	176–200	University of Malaya	Malaysia
176–200	151–175	University of Miami	United States
176–200	201–250	University of Newcastle	Australia
176–200	176–200	Nova Southeastern University	United States
176–200	176–200	Oregon Health and Science University	United States
176–200	NR	Qatar University	Qatar
176–200	201–250	Queensland University of Technology	Australia
176–200	176–200	Radboud University Nijmegen	Netherlands
176–200	151–175	Sichuan University	China
176–200	201–250	Swansea University	United Kingdom
176–200	201–250	TU Dresden	Germany
176–200	151–175	University College Cork	Republic of Ireland
176–200	201–250	Western Sydney University	Australia