St George’s is justifiably proud of its distinctiveness as a health sciences university. It is a university that has its own identity through being co-located with its university hospital in South West London, enabling students and staff to walk the corridors from clinical teaching room to laboratory to hospital ward or clinic. St George’s serves a community of more than one million people in London – a community that is nationally representative and relevant to learning and researching medicine and biological sciences in their broadest sense. St George’s is proud of being self-reliant and values its partners across the university and health sectors. St George’s provides a working and learning environment that enables students and staff to work closely together, creating a uniquely convivial and supportive environment. They provide programmes in medicine, biomedical sciences, and bioinformatics. St George’s was the first university in the UK to introduce a four-year graduate course to encourage mature students from all walks of life to enter medicine. They work actively with local schools to encourage less advantaged students to consider medicine as a career. They are proud to teach midwifery, radiography, physiotherapy, paramedic, social work and nursing students in conjunction with Kingston University in our joint Faculty of Health and Social Care Sciences. This fostering of interdisciplinary learning for students entering the different professions supports the inter-professional teamwork necessary for good patient care. Students benefit from their reputation within the NHS for training excellent future healthcare professionals. Their students consider St George’s to be an incredible place to study – they rate the university very highly (they are in the top 20 of all universities in the United Kingdom in the National Student Survey and top of the medical schools). They acknowledge the teaching to be exceptional and value the closeness with the academic and administrative staff – importantly, the students rate highly their facilities and social activities, and the many clubs, societies and sports available to them through the Students’ Union. Students appreciate being part of a community that is making an important contribution to London society through links with schools and charities.
