Medical School Rankings UK – 2024 Results

Deciphering the different medical school rankings can be confusing and may interrupt your search for the right university. In this guide, we'll go over everything you need to know to help you understand what they mean and review the most recent medical school rankings from two of the biggest providers in the UK.

Last Updated: 9th November 2018

Author: Rohan Agarwal

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Medical School Rankings UK – 2024 Results

UK Medical School Rankings for 2024 are now out, so which are the best medical schools in the UK?

With so many different organisations putting together lists of which Medical School is the best in the country, how do you know which ones to look at and believe? And how much importance should you actually place on medical school ranking tables?

We’ve put together this guide to explain the rankings and help you understand what to take into consideration when you’re making your choices. If you’re ready, then let’s get started!

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Who makes the UK medical school rankings?

There are a number of different ranking guides which compile their lists using different measuring factors. The Guardian and The Complete University Guide are two of the most popular organisations that compile lists of the best universities in the UK for lots of courses, though there are also global rankings provided by different organisations like QS Top Universities.

Of course, these aren’t the only league tables around for UK Medical School rankings. A quick Google search can give you a lot more options if you’d like to compare and have multiple tables to back up your decision of which Medical School to apply to. For today though we will be focussing on just two tables.

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How Are UK Medical Schools Ranked?

There is no singular way to rank the UK Medical Schools. There are roughly 36 of them in total, all varying in their teaching style, selection process, and education standard.

While many different Medical School ranking tables exist, they do not all agree. This is largely because the rankings are influenced by vague or indefinable aspects, such as the reputation of the university, or the level of student satisfaction for those studying there – both are difficult to accurately measure.

That’s not to say that these ranking tables are completely unreliable, as they still help to give a general sense of how a medical school performed in a given year and how students rated their experience. It’s just important to know that a lot of the metrics covered aren’t supported by extensive data.

It’s also worth noting that even the lowest universities on these lists aren’t too low in quality. The UK is generally known for maintaining a high standard of education, including medical degrees, so the lowest-ranked universities earn their place for being less exceptional or having a couple of noticeable flaws compared to others.

Now we have a bit more context, let’s look at two of the most well-known university ranking tables, starting with The Guardian.

The Guardian Medical School Rankings

To compile their lists of Medical School rankings UK, the Guardian uses these headings to rank the schools:

Satisfied with course (the overall rating given by final year students)
Satisfied with teaching (quality of teaching rated by final year students)
Satisfied with feedback (a rating for the quality of feedback and assessment by final year students)
Student to staff ratio (the number of students per staff member)
Spend per student (the amount of money spent on each student excluding academic staff costs)
Value added score (a comparison of students’ degree results against the entry qualification, which shows how effectively they are taught)
Career after 15 months (the percentage of graduates who find a job or continue further study within 15 months of graduating)
Average entry tariff (the typical UCAS score of entrants)
Continuation (the percentage of first year students who go on to the second year)

They then give each of these categories a score depending on the information they have collected. Finally, all Medical Schools are then given a Guardian Score out of 100, which determines the rank they receive.

Data is collected from a variety of sources, including student satisfaction results from the National Student Survey (NSS) and employability and entry standards data directly from the universities.

The Guardian Medical School Rankings 2024

Below is The Guardian’s league table in full, displaying the results for 2024 and comparison to 2023’s results:

Position	University	Previous Position (2023)
1	University of Aberdeen	2nd (>1)
2	University of Cambridge	1st (<1)
3	University of St.Andrews	5th (>2)
4	Swansea University	7th (>3)
5	University of Edinburgh	3rd (<2)
6	Keele University	9th (>3)
7	Imperial College London	4th (<3)
8	University of Oxford	6th (<2)
9	University of Glasgow	10th (>1)
10	Brighton & Sussex Medical School	8th (<2)
11	University of Bristol	12th (>1)
12	University College London (UCL)	18th (>6)
13	Queen’s University Belfast	21st (>8)
14	Cardiff University	15th (>1)
15	Hull York Medical School	14th (<1)
16	University of Dundee	11th (<5)
17	University of Leicester	16th (<1)
18	Newcastle University	17th (<1)
19	University of Sunderland	NA
20	University of Liverpool	13th (<7)
21	University of Leeds	19th (<2)
22	Queen Mary University of London	20th (<2)
23	University of East Anglia (UEA)	22nd (<1)
24	University of Plymouth	25th (>1)
25	University of Sheffield	31st (>6)
26	University of Birmingham	27th (>1)
27	King’s College London	26th (<1)
28	Lancaster University	24th (<4)
29	University of Warwick	29th (=)
30	University of Southampton	28th (<2)
31	University of Manchester	30th (<1)
32	University of Exeter	23rd (<9)
33	University of Buckingham	33rd (=)
34	University of Nottingham	34th (=)
35	St George’s University of London	35th (=)
36	Aston University	32nd (<4)
37	University of Central Lancashire	37th (=)

This year, The Guardian gave the top spot to the University of Aberdeen with a score of 100. Aberdeen rose from second place and has taken the spot from Cambridge, which ranked number one in 2023. Closely following is the University of Cambridge and the University of St.Andrews in second and third.

It is not common to see such a gap between Oxford and Cambridge in a university ranking table. However, we can see here that while Cambridge takes the 2nd spot, Oxford is placed much lower down at 8th.

The University of Central Lancashire takes the last position in 2024 for the second year in a row with a score of 36.2. However, the following medical schools were not featured in this year’s ranking:

Compared to last year’s results, we can see the most dramatic change was for the University of Exeter, which fell nine spots from 23rd to 32nd. The biggest improvement was for Queen’s University Belfast, which rose 8 spots from 21st to 13th.

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The Complete University Guide Medical School Rankings

The second and equally respected university league table is produced by The Complete University Guide. Their Medical School rankings are based on a slightly different set of criteria, although there is a lot of overlap.

To compile their lists of UK Medical School rankings, these are the headings to rank the schools:

Entry Standards (the average UCAS tariff of students joining the university)
Student Satisfaction (how satisfied students are with the quality of teaching they receive)
Research Quality (a measure of the quality of research undertaken in the university)
Graduate Prospects (a measure of the employability of beyond graduation)
Overall Score (an overall score that determines the rank of the medical school)

There are also a few other factors taken into consideration that have an impact on the overall score awarded to medical Schools. These aren’t displayed on the main ranking table but are as follows:

Research intensity (the proportion of staff involved in research)
Student:staff ratio (the number of students to staff)
Academic services spend (the spend per student on all academic services)
Facilities spend (the spend per student on staff and student facilities)
Good honours (the number of students achieving first or 2:1 degrees)

As with The Guardian, each category has a weighting attached to it, which then feeds into the final “Overall Score” achieved by a university. This overall score is what determines the Medical School’s rank in the UK. Like The Guardian, much of this data is collected from the NSS and the universities.

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Complete University Guide Medical School Ranking Table 2024

Below is the full Complete University Guide ranking table, displaying the results for 2024 and comparison to 2023’s results:

Position	University	Previous Position (2023)
1	University of Cambridge	1st (=)
2	University of Oxford	2nd (=)
3	University College London (UCL)	5th (>2)
4	Imperial College London	4th (=)
5	University of Edinburgh	8th (>3)
6	University of Bristol	6th (=)
7	University of Glasgow	3rd (<4)
8	Queen’s University Belfast	7th (<1)
9	University of Dundee	9th (=)
10	University of St.Andrews	14th (>4)
11	University of Leicester	11th (<1)
12	Queen Mary University of London	16th (>4)
13	Swansea University	NEW
14	Cardiff University	11th (<3)
15	King’s College London	12th (<3)
16	Lancaster University	13th (<3)
17	University of Sheffield	15th (<2)
18	Keele University	17th (<1)
19	University of Aberdeen	18th (<1)
20	University of Manchester	20th (=)
21	Hull York Medical School	21st (=)
22	Newcastle University	23rd (>1)
23	University of Exeter	22nd (<1)
24	University of Birmingham	19th (<5)
25	University of Leeds	25th (=)
26	University of East Anglia (UEA)	24th (<2)
27	Brighton & Sussex Medical School	26th (<1)
28	St.George’s University of London	28th (=)
29	University of Plymouth	31st (>2)
30	University of Southampton	30th (=)
31	University of Liverpool	27th (<4)
32	University of Nottingham	29th (<3)
33	University of Warwick	NEW
34	Anglia Ruskin University	NEW
35	University of Buckingham	32nd (<3)
36	University of Central Lancashire	33rd (<3)

In The Complete University Guide’s ranking, Cambridge takes the top spot again. Oxford, UCL and Imperial each follow with very high scores but Cambridge just edges them out with a 100% score. Be aware that Complete University Guide refers to this table as their 2025 ranking in reference to the year of entry that this year’s applicants will be applying for.

As you can see, there’s very little consistency between the top 5 in each table, with only two universities appearing in both and only one university sitting in the same spot on each (Edinburgh at 5th).

The University of Central Lancashire once again takes the last position with a score of 89%, which still seems very high! However, this is a conclusion that both tables seem to agree on. The following medical schools did not feature on this ranking:

Compared to The Guardian’s ranking, far more universities maintained their space this year, including three of the top five. The biggest position change came from the University of Birmingham, which fell five slots from 19th to 24th.

By considering just these two ranking tables of Medical Schools in the UK, we can see that there isn’t a “confirmed” ranking list that everyone can agree on. This split is confirmed further when looking at other ranking providers like Time Higher Education, so the conclusions made in these tables should not be the only influence in your decision-making process.

The Best and Worst UK Medical Schools

It needs to be made clear again that these rankings are not definitive in any sense, nor is there a way to calculate the definitive “best” medical school in the UK. While factors such as employment rates and student satisfaction can be measured to a certain degree, each person will have their own preferences as to how they want to study and live at university.

With that being said though, let’s round up the data and see which medical schools ranked highest and lowest between the two tables:

Best Universities For Medicine UK

The highest-ranked medical schools in the UK tend to stay consistent from year to year, although their placements may move around. In 2024, the University of Cambridge and University of Aberdeen took the top spots, with both receiving perfect 100 scores. Of course, the overall score doesn’t mean these universities are literally perfect, but they are consistently high-scoring in many of the metrics that are recorded.

Let’s look at the top five UK medical schools for each list:

Complete University Guide

The Guardian

From this list, we can see that Scottish medical schools tend to do fairly well in The Guardian rankings, with three of the top five being Scottish.

Besides that, we can see The Guardian has not ranked the University of Oxford within the top 5, which is fairly uncommon for any UK university ranking. Oxford instead appears in the 8th position. Two London universities appear on the Complete University Guide’s top 5, while none appear on The Guardian’s. The highest-ranked London medical school on that list was Imperial College London in 7th.

Worst Medical Schools UK

Any ranking must have a bottom rank, but in this case, the bottom ranking shouldn’t be taken as a list of medical schools to avoid. Worst is a very strong word to use in this context as none of the universities listed here are bad. They simply placed at the bottom of a highly competitive ranking.

Nonetheless, here are the lowest-ranked medical schools in the UK in ascending order:

Complete University Guide

The Guardian

UCLAN takes the bottom spot on both lists with Buckingham being the only other to appear on both. It’s worth noting that, especially with the Complete University Guide’s scoring system, none of these universities score particularly poorly. While they may not be exceptional in many areas, the education provided at these medical schools is of a high standard and will give you the best chance of employment afterwards. As we said before, these medical schools aren’t bad, they just had some truly exceptional competition.

We know the rankings featured in each table individually, but how do the results looked when considering both tables?

Below, we have created a table that combines the ranking positions for each university from both tables to determine the order based on both opinions. When looking at the combined positions, a lower total equals a higher ranking For example, Cambridge ranked 1st & 2nd in the two tables, so it received a combined ranking of 3, making it the highest-ranked medical school in the UK. Let’s take a look:

UniAdmissions' Combined Medical School Rankings

Position	University	Combined Ranking Score
1	University of Cambridge	3
2	University of Oxford	10
2	University of Edinburgh	10
3	Imperial College London	11
4	University of St.Andrews	13
5	University College London (UCL)	15
6	University of Glasgow	16
7	University of Bristol	17
7	Swansea University	17
8	University of Aberdeen	20
9	Queen’s University Belfast	21
10	Keele University	24
11	University of Dundee	25
12	University of Leicester	28
12	Cardiff University	28
13	Queen Mary University of London	34
14	Hull York Medical School	36
15	Brighton & Sussex Medical School	37
16	Newcastle University	40
17	King’s College London	42
17	University of Sheffield	42
18	Lancaster University	43
19	University of Leeds	46
20	University of East Anglia (UEA)	49
21	University of Birmingham	50
22	University of Manchester	51
22	University of Liverpool	51
23	University of Exeter	55
23	University of Plymouth	55
24	University of Southampton	60
25	University of Warwick	62
26	St George’s University of London	63
27	University of Nottingham	66
28	University of Buckingham	68
29	University of Central Lancashire	73
NA	University of Sunderland	19 (Not featured on Complete Uni Guide)
NA	Anglia Ruskin University	34 (Not featured on The Guardian League Table)
NA	Aston University	36 (Not featured on Complete Uni Guide)

From this table, we can see that Cambridge was the highest-ranked medical school overall in the UK, with Oxford and Edinburgh coming in joint 2nd with a score of 10 (2 & 10 for Oxford and 5 & 5 for Edinburgh). Cambridge and Oxford rank high in terms of quality, but the acceptance rates at each university are very low compared to many others. Learn more about this in our Cambridge Acceptance Rates Guide and Oxford Acceptance Rates Guide.

Of course, the University of Central Lancashire ranks at the bottom of our list with a total score of 73, although three universities did not qualify as they did not appear on both ranking tables.

While this list isn’t a more accurate measurement of which medical schools are best, it does help to make the comparison between the two tables a bit easier.

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Which Ranking Table Should I Follow?

That depends on what’s most important to you. For example, you may place more importance on ‘spend per student’ or career prospects. The Guardian have created their own way of ranking universities which is largely based on student perspective and The Complete University Guide, on the other hand, puts focus on student satisfaction.

You also need to consider that the ranking of the university as a whole is also based on the quality of research being produced by the postgraduate Masters and PhD students, which has little to do with the experience of a Medical undergraduate.

It can be easy to get very carried away with all these different ratings and rankings of the best Medical Schools in the UK. While it is true that these subtle differences may affect your experience at university, you should keep in mind that all of these Medical Schools are highly rated universities with excellent rankings across the board.

However, it is crucial to remember that no matter which Medical School you attend, you will graduate with the future of a fully respected career which is boundless in its opportunities. So don’t get too worried if you don’t end up being able to go to the medical schools at the very top of the list.

Ultimately, it’s a matter of what you are looking for in a University when it comes to how you choose which Medical School you want to apply to.

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