Medicine has been taught in Oxford since the thirteenth century. The first academic position in the University (and in Britain) specifically concerned with clinical instruction in hospital wards was the Litchfield Clinical Professorship, established in 1780. The modern revival of medicine in the University dates from Henry Acland's appointment as Regius Professor of Medicine in 1857. He championed the building of the University Museum as a centre for improved teaching of natural science and arranged for medical students to obtain clinical experience in London hospitals after their BA degree.

The Medical School, as an active branch of undergraduate teaching, is said to date from 1882 when JS Burdon Sanderson was elected the first Waynflete Professor of Physiology. He attempted to develop further the Medical School by reducing the length of the medical curriculum and helping to establish the Faculty of Medicine in 1886. The aim of the Faculty was not vocational education: rather, it aimed to give a broad education in biomedical sciences to a small number of undergraduates. Until 1939, the Medical School consisted solely of pre-clinical teaching; there was no provision at the University for clinical teaching. Those who had completed their pre-clinical studies at Oxford were required to do their clinical training elsewhere, usually at the London hospitals. Before the first World War, when the pre-clinical intake was about 25 students per year, Sir William Osler, Regius Professor of Medicine (1904-19), had introduced Sunday morning ward rounds for students to compensate for the lack of a clinical school. Other than this, the Medical School had little to do with the Radcliffe Infirmary or with clinical training and research.

Pre-clinical medical students spent four years studying for examinations in the Honour School of Natural Science (namely the Preliminary Examination and the Final Examination in Animal Physiology) and for the First BM Examination. There then followed two years of clinical study in the London teaching hospitals after which they were licensed to practise medicine. The more academically-inclined (about half) completed their medical education by returning to Oxford to sit the Second BM Examination and take the degree of BM, BCh. In 1923 the General Medical Council changed the requirements and increased the minimum period of clinical study from two to three years. This reduced the period of study in Oxford by a year (ie to three years). Following the changes, students were allowed to take their Preliminary Examination in Natural Science before coming into residence. By 1930, the pre-clinical intake had risen to 50.

The impetus for the creation of a clinical school in Oxford (ie a school for students studying for the Second BM Examination) came initially from Hugh Cairns who, in 1934, began informal discussions with the University to establish a clinical school in Oxford. Cairns' scheme was eventually realised following the benefaction of Lord Nuffield in 1937, which went on to establish the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research, five new clinical professorships (the Nuffield Professorships of Surgery, Medicine, Anaesthetics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and Orthopaedic Surgery) and two readerships (in pathology and biochemistry). Nuffield's gift was to promote the progress of medical knowledge by widening the scope of the Medical School and by providing facilities in the School for research. Some money was used to upgrade teaching facilities at the Radcliffe Infirmary, but the focus remained, at this stage, on postgraduate research rather than clinical training.

The Clinical School of the Medical School is generally thought to have started in 1939. After war broke out the London medical schools dispersed and their students were evacuated, some of them to Oxford. In October 1939, a temporary Clinical School opened in the Radcliffe Infirmary. The University admitted about 50 clinical students each year who were initially accommodated at Somerville College.

In March 1942 the Goodenough Committee, an interdepartmental government Committee on Medical Schools, was established. The University gave evidence to the Committee stating that it wanted to develop an undergraduate clinical school. In its report of May 1944, the Committee recommended that the University should continue an undergraduate clinical school after the war although it restricted the annual student entry to a quota of 20-25 students. The proposal was endorsed by the Medicine Faculty Board and the new Clinical School became a permanent part of the University. When fully established in 1946 (ie no longer a war-time improvisation) the intake was only five students. The University's policy was that the Clinical School should be small, should teach at honours level and be associated with an extensive programme of postgraduate education and research. The quota gradually increased over time; by 1950 it had risen to 32 per year. As the pre-clinical intake at this time was usually about twice that of the clinical quota not all pre-clinical students could stay in Oxford. The majority tended to go elsewhere and the University encouraged clinical admissions from Cambridge and other universities.

In 1950 Hebdomadal Council asked the Medicine Faculty Board to prepare a statement showing how the Medical School was organised, what it was doing and how it intended to develop. A committee of the Board reported to Council in December 1950 (HC 1/1/207, p248). The report loosely defined the Medical School as 'an aggregate of arrangements' in the University and teaching hospitals that served the Faculty of Medicine in the teaching of students for the 1st and 2nd BM BCh examinations. The financial business of the School was dealt with by the Faculty Board in conjunction with the Nuffield Committee for the Advancement of Medicine. The administrative staff of the Medical School at this time comprised the Pre-clinical Advisor, the Director of Clinical Studies, the Secretary of the Medical School, the Chief Clerk and four clerical assistants all under the direction of the Regius Professor of Medicine. The Regius Professor was primus inter pares amongst the other professors of the School. The teaching and research of the Medicine Faculty Board at this time was still organised under the two headings: pre-clinical and clinical. The pre-clinical departments (Human Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pharmacology, Pathology and Bacteriology) were run in the same way as other non-medical science departments. The clinical side was run quite differently to the rest of the University. For example, each of the now six Nuffield Professors (Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Anaesthetics, Orthopaedic Surgery, and, from 1944, Plastic Surgery) had a department; not in the sense of a normal University department, simply offices and a laboratory in the hospital. The professors were not as independent as other heads of department; for example, appointments to their staff were made by the Nuffield Committee for Advancement of Medicine from whom they received an annual grant and to whom they submitted annual accounts. In addition to the pre-clinical departments and the clinical section, there were other departments involved to some extent in medical teaching and research. 'Intermediate' departments such as the Nuffield Institute for Medical Research and the Nuffield Laboratory of Ophthalmology existed for research students and research staff, respectively, some of whom taught clinical students. Other departments were established experimentally, such as the Department for Human Nutrition and the Institute of Social Medicine, which undertook some teaching and research. The United Oxford Hospitals was the teaching hospital which consisted of a number of hospitals including the Radcliffe Infirmary, the Churchill, the Osler Pavilion and the Eye Hospital.

In 1968 a new Sub-faculty of Clinical Medicine was created with a standing committee. In 1969 a working party was set up by the Medicine Faculty Board and the Nuffield Committee to look again at the future of the Clinical School, to prepare a case for additional UGC funds, and to advise about the next phase of the new hospital development at the Manor House site. The report of the working party (The Development of the Clinical School, Report of a Working Party, September 1971) highlighted the differences between the Clinical School and other parts of the University. First, the Clinical School depended on a group of hospitals independent of the University for access to patients and on National Health Service consultant staff of these hospitals for much of the teaching; secondly, that it was financed, to a large extent, by the Nuffield Benefaction for the Advancement of Medicine which was managed separately from main University funds; and thirdly, that the academic organisation of the Clinical School was split between the Medicine Faculty Board and the Nuffield Committee for the Advancement of Medicine.

As a result of the report, the Faculty of Medicine was replaced in 1974 by two new faculties: the Faculty of Physiological Sciences and the Faculty of Clinical Medicine, separate faculty administrations for the pre-clinical and clinical parts of the Medical School. The functions and duties of the Nuffield Committee for the Advancement of Medicine were transferred to the Board of the Faculty of Clinical Medicine. The major part of the Nuffield Medical Benefaction was to be transferred to the General Board each year as a contribution towards the running of the Clinical School. The remainder was to be at the disposal of the Clinical Medicine Faculty Board. A new committee was formed, the Nuffield Benefaction Committee, which was to advise the Nuffield Trustees as to the allocation of funds to the General Board and the Board of the Faculty of Clinical Medicine.

Both the Faculty of Physiological Sciences and the Faculty of Clinical Medicine were abolished in 2000 on the creation of the Medical Sciences Division. In 2004 the new Final Honour School of Medical Sciences was established.

In 2013, the standard Oxford medicine course is a 6 year course. Years 1-3 are the pre-clinical course leading to the First BM and BA (Final Honour School of Medical Sciences). Years 4-6 are the clinical course leading to the degree of BM, BCh.

Dean and Secretary of the Medical School:

The Dean of the Medical School was, until 1948, the chief administrative officer of the School. The post of Dean was first established, on a trial basis, in 1922 following a request by the General Board for a post to take on administrative duties in the Medical School (see HC 1/1/121, pp127-9). The post's responsibilities were to include maintenance of the Register of Medical Students, liaison with students and the London teaching hospitals, and signing of the certificates required of medical students. The post was made permanent in 1924 (see HC 1/1/127, p141). The holder was to be a member of Convocation appointed by the Medicine Faculty Board, of which he was an ex-officio member.

The Dean was initially located within the Department of Medicine, one of the scientific departments of the University Museum. At this time the Department comprised the Regius Professor of Medicine and an assistant. The Dean's appointment appears to be the first time that the official title 'Medical School' was used by the University, even though it appears to have been in use unofficially for many years previously as a way of describing the pre-clinical departments.

The Secretary of the Medical School, also a statutory post, was first appointed in 1948 following the establishment of the Clinical School on a permanent basis and the move of the Medical School administration into 43 Woodstock Road. The Secretary was to be a member of Convocation appointed by the Medicine Faculty Board. He was to attend meetings of the Faculty Board by invitation and act as secretary to the Pre-Clinical and Clinical Teaching Committees and the ad hoc cttees of the Faculty Board. He was also Assistant Secretary to the Nuffield Committee for the Advancement of Medicine.

The duties of the Dean of the Medical School were initially changed as a result. He retained the signing of medical examination certificates but lost responsibility to the Secretary for maintenance of the Register of Medical Students and liaison with students and the teaching hospitals. The post of Dean was abolished in 1949 and a new post, the Director of Clinical Studies, was created. Following the abolition of the Deanship, the Secretary also assumed responsibility for the signing of medical examination certificates.

Until 1964, the administrative officers of the School (eg the Dean and Secretary) continued to be listed in the University Calendar as members of the Department of Medicine, even though the School administration had left the Museum in 1955. From 1964, the School of Medicine had its own Calendar entry.

In 1971 the post of Secretary of the Medical School came under review by an ad hoc committee of General Board. It was subseqently abolished in 1972 and its duties transferred to the Secretary of the Board of the Faculty of Medicine. Following the split of the Board of the Faculty of Medicine in 1974 into the Clinical Medicine and Physiological Sciences Faculty Boards, the post became Secretary to both boards, the Joint Standing Committee for Medicine and the Nuffield Benefaction Committee.

The title of 'Secretary of the Medical School' appears to have been in use again for the Secretary to the Clinical Medicine and Physiological Sciences Faculty Boards during the 1990s until the Division of Medical Sciences was created in 2000. The title persisted (alongside the Secretary to the Division) until 2002 when it appears to have been superseded by Secretary to the Division.

Premises:

Until 1946 the administrative headquarters of the Medical School were in the University Museum. In 1946 the School acquired Osler House, the former Radcliffe Observer's House at the Radcliffe Observatory, at 43 Woodstock Road. It used the building as its administrative and social centre (for the Osler House Club), maintaining its office in the University Museum until 1955. In 1979 Green College was founded and took over the Observatory site. Both the administration and the Club then moved to the newly-completed Phase II building of the John Radcliffe Hospital.

The Medical School also used as offices, for a time, 13 Norham Gardens, the former home of Sir William and Lady Osler. The house was left to Christ Church by Lady Osler as a residence for the Regius Professor of Medicine; both Sir George Pickering (Professor, 1956-68) and Sir Richard Doll (Professor, 1969-79) lived there for a time. Following transfer of its ownership to the University, the house was used, for a time, as both Medical School offices and for the Oxford University Newcomers' Club. In 2013 the building is owned by Green College and operates as the Osler-McGovern conference centre.