press release
Published: 14 May 2024

University of Surrey’s new medical school secures government-funded places

The new medical school at Surrey will be opening its doors to UK-funded medical students from September 2025. The news was announced on Monday 13 May by the Department for Health and Social Care.  

The University of Surrey’s new School of Medicine has been awarded 34 home medical student places to start in 2025, representing a significant proportion of the 350 places shared across more than 30 medical schools nationally for this next academic year. 

Surrey’s School of Medicine is already scheduled to welcome international students in September 2024. But the announcement of UK-funded places from 2025 will ‘turbo-charge’ the University of Surrey’s contribution to filling the well-documented shortages of new medics required to meet the targets identified in the Government’s Long-Term NHS Workforce Plan. 

We are delighted to be on track to open Surrey’s first medical school – and to be playing such a significant part in delivering the expansion in medical school places the government needs to deliver its NHS Workforce Plan. New doctors qualifying from Surrey will receive training that draws on the University’s expertise in biomedical science, clinical education, technology, and digital learning. We’ll be graduating doctors with the knowledge, skills and high professional standards required to meet the needs of patients in both community and hospital settings. Professor Juliet Wright, Founding Dean of Medicine

Surrey’s Medical Programme offers an accelerated route to medical qualification, in the form of a Graduate Entry model – where students with a previous first degree can undertake a four-year medical training programme. This aligns with the government’s stated ambitions of creating additional routes into the medical profession, and the University anticipates applications including those from people already working in the NHS in allied careers as well as a wide variety of previous academic backgrounds. 

The University of Surrey has a proud history of training nurses, paramedics and midwives for the NHS and of delivering research that has saved lives and advanced medical treatment. Our new School of Medicine completes the picture, and Surrey’s first medical school will soon be providing the NHS with doctors with comprehensive, clinically focused, modern training that will enable them to deliver excellent and compassionate care in the NHS of the future.” Professor Lu, Max, President and Vice-Chancellor

The new School of Medicine will build on the University’s strong performance in UK rankings. The University of Surrey is ranked first in the UK for paramedic science in the Complete University Guide 2024, eighth in the UK for nursing in The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2024 and fourth in the UK for overall student satisfaction in the latest National Student Survey 2023.  

The University of Surrey is working closely with NHS partners across Surrey and the South-East to deliver training places for medical students studying at their School of Medicine, including:  

Ashford and St. Peter's Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust; NHS Frimley Health Foundation Trust; Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust; Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust; Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust; and a network of local GP practices.  

This is tremendous news for the professional team here at the University of Surrey, who have worked so hard to get us to this point. We are looking forward to working across the multidisciplinary team at the University and with our NHS partners to deliver a new cohort of qualified doctors that the NHS so urgently needs to deliver the healthcare of the future. Professor Paul Townsend, Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

The University of Surrey is currently undergoing accreditation of the medical programme with the General Medical Council (GMC) and is in the latter stages of this rigorous process.  

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Featured Academics

Juliet Wright

Prof Juliet Wright

Founding Dean of Medicine
Max Lu

Prof Lu, Max

President and Vice-Chancellor
Paul Townsend

Prof Paul Townsend

Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Executive Dean of the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences

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