Top 50 Clinical, Pre-Clinical and Health Universities

27 October 2011

The University of Oxford, which tops the league table for clinical, preclinical and health subjects, is the only non-American institution at the summit of any of the subject tables.

Oxford can trace the study of medicine there back to the 14th century, although clinical student teaching began during the Second World War when medical students were evacuated from London during the Nazi bombardment of the city.

Its medical courses are perhaps best known for being extremely hard to get into: in August, student Prina Shah made the headlines when she was rejected despite her four A* grades at A level. In 2000, Oxford's rejection of similarly starred state-school pupil Laura Spence sparked a political storm: Gordon Brown, the future prime minister, accused its admissions tutors of elitism after she failed to win a place to read medicine.

But it is in medical research where Oxford really stands out, bolstered by the largest cluster of overseas research activity across the entire university - the Africa and Asia Tropical Medicine network.

And the future looks bright, too: in August, the institution was awarded well over £100 million over five years in three separate tranches by the National Institute for Health Research to fund research partnerships between the university and local hospitals.

Oxford heads a list of eight British universities in the top 50, with four in the top 10 including Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge.

Three Asian representatives make the table - the University of Tokyo, the University of Hong Kong and the National University of Singapore.

Hong Kong's medical faculty was founded by the London Missionary Society in 1887 and is now the largest of the university's faculties.