St George's, University of London

Hyde Park Corner in 1842

St George’s Hospital Medical School was originally established in 1733 as part of St George's Hospital at Hyde Park Corner (now the site of The Lanesborough hotel), in central London. The medical school was relocated, together with St George's Hospital to Tooting, South London in 1980. A joint faculty with Kingston University, the Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences, has increased the variety of allied healthcare courses offered at St George's, including Nursing, Physiotherapy, Paramedic Science and Radiography.

St George's was the first institution in the United Kingdom to offer a four-year graduate entry Medicine degree based on the programme from Flinders University,[5] with which it has an exchange programme. The first intake was in 2000 with 35 students and the course has since been emulated by many other universities. Entry to the course is highly competitive with candidates being required to sit the GAMSAT as part of the application process.

In 2008, St George's announced that it planned to merge with Royal Holloway to form a single institution within the University of London.[6][7] The merger was called off in a joint statement by the two colleges' principals on 25 September 2009.[8][9] St George's intends to keep working with Royal Holloway in the field of health and social care along with its well-established Joint Faculty with Kingston University.[10] St George's, Kingston University and Royal Holloway will continue to collaborate in the field of health and social care as part of the existing SWan (South West London Academic Network) healthcare alliance.[11]

The St George's University of London campus is located in the Tooting area of south-west London, and is co-located with St George's Hospital, a 1,300 bed major trauma centre.[12]

Teaching facilities at the campus include clinical skills laboratories and a simulation suite allowing students to practice based on real-life situations including surgical and medical emergencies.[12] The university library houses approximately 42,000 books and subscribes to over 10,000 journals.[12]

Previously, the Rob Lowe Sports Centre located at the St George's Hospital grounds provided sporting facilities to students and staff, including a sports hall, three squash courts, and weights and fitness rooms.[12] However, the site has recently been decommissioned, with only the sports hall retained. Students have used other facilities instead, including the nearby Tooting Leisure Centre.

St George's offers foundation and undergraduate degrees at its site in Tooting in medical, biomedical and healthcare sciences, including: Biomedical Science BSc (Hons), Biomedical Science Foundation Degree, Healthcare Practice DipHE and BSc (Hons), Healthcare Practice Foundation Degree, Healthcare Science (Physiological Sciences) BSc (Hons), Clinical Pharmacology BSc (Hons),[17] Medicine (four-year graduate stream) MBBS4, Medicine (five-year) MBBS5, and Medicine (six-year) MBBS6, Physician Associate Studies MSc.[12][18]

In partnership with Kingston University, the joint Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences also offers degrees in physiotherapy, occupational therapy, paramedic science, nursing, midwifery, social work and diagnostic or therapeutic radiography.

St George's, in partnership with INTO University Partners, has also formed a joint venture, INTO SGUL, to offer a Foundation in Medical, Biomedical and Health Sciences for international students whose qualifications do not allow direct progression into Bachelors level study in the UK, and a six-year MBBS and a four-year graduate stream MBBS programme specifically for international students, with clinical placements overseas. The first student cohort on each international MBBS programme entered St George's in September 2012.[19]

Outside of the UK, the MBBS4 is also offered in Nicosia, Cyprus, through a partnership between St George's and the University of Nicosia. The new programme was inaugurated and the first student cohort commenced in Nicosia in September 2011. The programme at the University of Nicosia features international clinical placements in Israel and the USA.[20]

St George's also offers numerous research and taught postgraduate degrees.[12]

St George's uses the integrated approach which involves the use of both Case Based Learning (CBL), Problem Based Learning (PBL) and a traditional style of learning with the use of lectures and tutorials. The degree of PBL used in teaching varies between courses, for example, being a major part of the Medicine (Graduate Entry) course but not prominently within the Biomedical Sciences curriculum. Anatomy is taught at St George's through prosections and practical within the dissecting room, with anatomical dissection being optional as part of the Summer Dissection Programme.

In the medical curriculum, preclinical teaching (first and second year in the undergraduate stream, and first year in the graduate stream) is largely based on lectures and tutorials held at the St George's campus, with a few weeks worth of attachments to various hospital departments. The third year of the undergraduate stream and second year of the graduate stream, also known as Transitional (T) year, comprises three blocks of PBL with lectures and tutorials and three blocks of clinical placements in medicine, surgery and general practice. Subsequent clinical years of either course are spent on clinical placements of various specialities, with teaching occurring as lecture weeks prior to each placement block, or teaching which occurs at hospital sites led by clinical staff.

Clinical placements for students on Medical degrees are mainly at St. George's Hospital, and at other sites such as Kingston Hospital, Croydon University Hospital, St Helier Hospital and Epsom General Hospital. Other further sites, such as Frimley Park Hospital, St Peter's Hospital and Margate Hospital are sites for placements during the later years of medical school.

The St George's Students' Union (SGSU) organises various activities including fancy dress discos and a Rag Week, the annual series of fund-raising events. In recent years the Union has become more politically aware and shown greater interest in National Union of Students and British Medical Association activities.

Each new student at St George's is assigned a 'mum' or 'dad' in the year above. These 'parents' act as mentors for the new students, giving them advice about the course, often tutoring them when needed, as well as buying them drinks during Freshers' Week and beyond. Over the years the family expands to include siblings, uncles, aunts, grandparents etc., spanning all the years of the various courses.

St George's enters a team into the British television quiz programme University Challenge each year and has previously excelled through the competition, especially in the field of medicine - unsurprisingly.

In December 1986, it was discovered that a computer program used to process student applications at St. George's, written by Dr Geoffrey Franglen in 1979, had discriminated against non-Caucasians and female candidates by deliberately reducing their likelihood of being offered an interview.[21][22] A Commission for Racial Equality inquiry found that this unfairly deprived 60 candidates a year, as well as finding that various senior academics were aware that the program was discriminatory several times between 1982 and 1986.[23][24]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to St George's, University of London.

• Official website
• St George's Students' Union website
• Lists of St George's, University of London students
• Lists of St George's, University of London military personnel, 1914–1918