Top Medical Schools in 2019

Discover the top medical schools based on the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2020.

Released today, the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2019 includes a ranking of the 500 top medical schools around the globe.

Each institution was ranked according to a methodology which assesses four academic indicators: academic reputation, employer reputation, research citations per paper, and H-index (which measures the productivity and impact of published papers of a scientist or scholar).

Read on for an overview of this year’s top universities for medicine, starting with a look at the top 10.

Of the 500 institutions featured in the medical school ranking, many are found in Europe, including a total of 39 in the UK.

Three UK universities are featured in this year’s top 10, with Oxford and Cambridge both achieving their best scores in the academic and employer reputation indicators.

UCL (University College London) is one of the world’s leading research institutions, and has climbed up one place this year to rank joint ninth in the medical school ranking, proudly displaying excellent scores across all four indicators.

Elsewhere in Europe, Germany has the second most entrants in the medical ranking, with 31 universities ranked in total, three of which are placed in the top 50. Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin is Germany’s highest ranked, at 33^rd, followed by Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg (=40), and Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (42^nd).

Heading down to southern Europe, Italy follows with 25 representatives in total, three of which claim a place in the top 100: Sapienza Università di Roma, Università degli Studi di Milano, and Università di Bologna (UNIBO). France has 20 universities ranked, with Sorbonne University and Université Paris Descartes both placing in the top 100, while Spain has 14 – its highest ranked, Universitat de Barcelona (UB), also making the top 100.

With seven representatives each are Belgium, the Netherlands and Sweden. Belgium’s Katholieke Universiteit Leuven claims 47^th place globally, while Université catholique de Louvain retains its place in the 51-100 range. Nearby in the Netherlands, four institutions sit in the 51-100 range – Leiden University, Maastricht University, the University of Groningen, and Utretcht University. However, its highest ranked medical schools are Erasmus University Rotterdam, which climbed up five places this year to rank =34^th, and the University of Amsterdam (=35^th).

Of all the locations mentioned above, Sweden is the only one apart from the UK with a university in the top 10. The Karolinska Institute (KI) remains in sixth place and offers medical and health science courses in English, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Sweden is also home to two other medical schools featured in the top 100: Lund University and Uppsala University.

Other European study destinations with the world’s top medical schools include Switzerland and Ireland with six entrants each; three of Switzerland’s entrants are in the top 100, and include the University of Basel, University of Geneva, and University of Zurich. In Ireland, only one institution – the Trinity College Dublin (TCD) – sits in the top 100.

Denmark, Finland, Portugal and Greece all have five entrants in the ranking, with Denmark’s highest ranked institution, the University of Copenhagen, featuring at joint 38^th, while Finland’s University of Helsinki ranks as one of the world’s top 100 for the subject.   

With less than five entrants in this year’s medical ranking, Norway, Hungary and Russia take the lead with four institutions each, followed by Austria and Czech Republic with three entrants – Austria’s highest ranked, Medizinische Universität Wien, retaining its place in the global top 100. Locations with only one university in the medical ranking include Poland, Slovenia, Estonia, Serbia, Croatia, Romania and Lithuania.  

The 2019 medical school ranking sees a total of 90 US institutions ranked, of which 18 are in the global top 50, with a further 11 in the global top 100.

There are six medical schools from the US in the top 10. As the study destination’s most prestigious institution overall, Harvard University leads the ranking at number one, scoring perfect scores for the indicators measuring academic reputation, employer reputation, and h-index. Stanford University follows at number four globally, achieving outstanding scores across all four indicators.  

The world’s fifth-best medical school, Johns Hopkins University, is notable for receiving more research grants from the National Institutes of Health than any other medical school, while the world’s seventh-best – University of California, Los Angeles – offers its students intimate engagement with the school’s faculty as 70 percent of all undergraduate classes are made up of 30 or fewer members.

Ranked eighth, Yale University is home to Yale Medical School, a globally renowned center for biomedical research and education. Elsewhere, MIT sits in joint ninth place with the UK’s UCL and displays exceptional scores across all four categories, with a perfect score for citations per paper.

Other US medical schools ranked in the top 20 include the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), which retains its place at 11^th, followed by Columbia University at 14^th, the University of Pennsylvania (15^th), Duke University which climbed up an impressive four places from last year to place 16^th, and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) (=20^th).

Heading further north into Canada, 17 of its top medical schools are ranked this year, including four in the top 50 – University of Toronto (13^th), McGill University (19^th), University of British Columbia (30^th), McMaster University (=43^rd).