Exam season is coming to a close, and you know what that means: it’s time for millions of students to choose which universities they’d like to study at. And if you’re a prospective uni student (or parent of one), there is no shortage of university rankings out there to help you decide which educational establishment is the one for you.
Last week the Complete University Guide (CUG) published its 2026 edition, which took into account factors like entry standards, spending on academic services, graduate prospects, student-staff ratios and student satisfaction to come up with a ranking of the UK’s major unis. The list’s top spots weren’t too much of a surprise, with Cambridge, Oxford and LSE taking first, second and third, respectively.
If you’re looking for more info on specific subjects, the Complete University Guide offered that, too. So, what about medicine, one of the most prestigious, hard-to-get-on courses in the country?
CUG’s medicine table was somewhat similar to its general one, in that its first two spots were taken by Oxbridge. Cambridge University was crowned the UK’s top place to study medicine, with a whopping 100 percent overall score.
Second-placed Oxford also received a perfect 100 percent overall score, but Cambridge slightly edged its longtime rival when it came to graduate prospects (scoring 100 percent compared to Oxford’s 99 percent). Cambridge also boasted slightly higher entry standards and quality of research.
Third in the ranking was Imperial College London, which scored particularly well when it came to graduate prospects and research quality, while fourth was Queen’s University Belfast. Queen’s had a perfect 100 percent rating for graduate prospects, and leapt up four places on CUG’s 2025 list.
Here are the top 10 best universities to study medicine, according to the 2026 Complete University Guide.
The Complete University Guide 2026’s best universities to study medicine in the UK
- University of Cambridge
- University of Oxford
- Imperial College London
- Queen’s University Belfast
- Queen Mary University of London
- University of Glasgow
- University of Dundee
- University of Bristol
- University College London
- The University of Edinburgh
You can find CUG’s full medicine league table here.
This week analytics firm QS also published its list of the world’s top unis, featuring several from the UK and naming London’s Imperial College the best in the country.
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