Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry


Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, commonly known as Barts, is a medical and dental school in London, England. The school is part of Queen Mary University of London, a constituent college of the federal University of London, and a member of the United Hospitals. It was formed in 1995 by the merger of the London Hospital Medical College and St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College.
The school exists on two main sites, having a presence at the site of both of the former colleges at and near their respective hospitals, St Bartholomew's Hospital, and the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel with an additional site at Queen Mary's main campus.
As of 2018, the school had 2,235 undergraduate and 1,175 postgraduate students, for a total of 3,410 students.

History

London Hospital Medical College

The medical college at the London Hospital, now known as the Royal London Hospital, opened in 1785. It was England's first purpose-built medical school, pioneering a new kind of medical education, with an emphasis on theoretical and clinical teaching. The teaching premises were expanded in 1854, when buildings in Turner Street were built and opened, which are still in use today. For many years it functioned as an unincorporated general medical school of the University of London, until it was incorporated as the London Hospital Medical College on 30 March 1949. A dental school also opened at the London Hospital in 1911, acquiring the new dental institute and expanding student numbers during the 1960s. Dental education developed during the 1970s, increasing collaboration between dentists and other professionals.

St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College

Records of students at St Bartholomew's Hospital date back to at least 1662, although a purpose-built lecture theatre at the hospital was not built until 1791, and it wasn't until that 1822 the governors formally approved the provision of medical education within the hospital. Later a residential college was established, which moved to premises at Charterhouse Square in the 1930s. The medical college was formally established in 1843, and was incorporated as St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College on 26 July 1921.

Merger

Both colleges were admitted to the University of London in 1900, and a close association between the two was developed following the Royal Commission on Medical Education in 1968, with new links with the then Queen Mary College being established at the same time. In 1989 the pre-clinical teaching at the two colleges was merged and sited in the Basic Medical Sciences Building at Queen Mary. The two colleges officially merged in 1995, along with Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, now known as Queen Mary University of London, forming the combined entity known as Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry.
In 2016, the school reached an agreement with the government of Malta to open a satellite campus on the island of Gozo, with a purpose-built medical school and anatomy centre to be built on the Gozo General Hospital campus. The first students were admitted in 2017, and the buildings are due to be completed in 2019.

Campus

The school is split over a total of five campuses, with the main ones based around the location of the former medical colleges and their respective hospitals. Most medical teaching takes place at the Whitechapel campus, adjacent to the Royal London Hospital. The Blizard Building, a purpose-built building housing research facilities and a lecture theatre was completed at the Whitechapel site in 2005, and is where most lectures take place. Most dental teaching takes place at the Royal London Dental Hospital, which opened in 2014, adjacent to the main hospital site.
Teaching, in particular clinical skills teaching, also takes place at the West Smithfield campus, adjacent to St Bartholomew's Hospital, and the nearby Charterhouse Square campus, which also houses student residences.
Some additional teaching, including anatomy and dissection, takes place at the main QMUL campus in Mile End.

Hospitals

Medical students undertake clinical placements in the following hospitals, the majority of which are located in the City of London and East London, with a few in neighbouring Essex:

London

Teaching

A unique aspect of the Barts curriculum is the use of problem-based learning, which was first developed at McMaster University Medical School in the 1960s. Barts uses this method as part of an integrated curriculum as opposed to one that is solely or predominately based on problem based learning. Students work in groups with a tutor on a clinical case or problem, and use problem based learning to supplement the knowledge they acquire during their lectures.
The standard undergraduate Medicine course is a 5-year course, which results in the award of an MBBS degree. Students also have the option of extending their studies by a further year in order to study for an intercalated BSc in a range of related subjects. This is usually done after the 2nd, 3rd or 4th year.
Students who already have a science or health-related degree and who wish to study Medicine can also choose to apply to the Graduate Entry Programme. This is a 4-year course, with the first two years of the standard undergraduate course being condensed into one. The remaining years of the course are identical to the undergraduate course.

Rankings

The medical school has scored highly in a number of independent rankings in recent years, placing it in the top 10 of medical schools in the United Kingdom:
The dental school has also been ranked highly:
Admission to both the medical and dental schools is highly competitive. Over 2,500 applications to study medicine are received by the school each year. Of these, 800 candidates are interviewed and approximately 440 offers are made. For dentistry, over 700 applications are received, of which 250 candidates are interviewed and approximately 150 offers are made.
The school accepts A-levels, the International Baccalaureate Diploma, Irish Leaving Certificate, Scottish Highers, Cambridge Pre-U and the European Baccalaureate as entry qualifications. Both the medical and dental degrees are open to graduate students, with a minimum of a 2:1 required. Applicants must sit the UK Clinical Aptitude Test which is used alongside the UCAS application to determine selection for interview. The school also accepts medical students from the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, the International Medical University Malaysia and St Andrews aiming to complete a 3-year direct clinical entry programme. Students applying to this scheme do not need to apply by 15 October deadline and are not required to take the UKCAT.

Research

The school serves a diverse population in East London and the wider Thames Gateway, with the differing demographics of East London in contrast to other areas of the country providing the school with a unique teaching opportunity. Consequently, many of the school's research efforts are focussed on conditions that are prevalent or endemic to the local area, for example, diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, tuberculosis and other chronic lung diseases, HIV, oral disease, and cancer.
The school has six research institutes:
Barts and The London Students' Association is the students' union for the medical and dental school, a largely independent arm of Queen Mary Students' Union formed when the student unions of St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical School and the London Hospital Clubs Union merged with QMSU at the time their parent bodies merged in 1995. The students' association has a very distinct culture from that of QMSU, with its own clubs and societies for most sports and activities, competing in the National Association of Medics' Sports against other schools and universities. BLSA is led by a sabbatical student president.

Notable people

Notable staff