School of Medicine, University of Manchester

School of Medicine
Established	1874 (1814 anatomy school)
Type	Medical school
Dean	Professor Alan North
Admin. staff	1,200
Students	3,400
Undergraduates	2,000
Postgraduates	1,400
Location	Manchester, Greater Manchester, England
Affiliations	University of Manchester
Website	http://www.medicine.manchester.ac.uk

The School of Medicine at the University of Manchester is one of the largest in the UK with around 2,000 undergraduates, 1400 postgraduates and 1,200 staff.^[1] The school is divided into five separate divisions, also called schools, one of which, Manchester Medical School is responsible for medical undergraduate tuition. The others, Community-Based Medicine, Translational Medicine, Biomedicine, and Cancer and Enabling Sciences Sciences, are primarily postgraduate and research divisions. As of 2008 the medical school admits some 380 home medical students and a further 29 from overseas per year.^[2]

History

The first home of the Medical School in Coupland Street, Chorlton on Medlock (as seen in 1908 looking west)^[3]

The School of Anatomy at Manchester Royal Infirmary was opened by Joseph Jordan in 1814. In the intervening 60 years more than one private medical school existed in Manchester: the most successful was that in Pine Street not far south of the Infirmary. The Royal Manchester School of Medicine and Surgery did not open until 1874 (at Owens College), and medical degrees were awarded by the Victoria University from 1883. The school was made co-educational in 1899 after a long and contentious debate about whether women could be members of the College at all.^[4] The first female medical student to qualify Catherine Chisholm practised as a paediatrician after graduating.^[5] The success of the school meant that the building needed to be extended twice, in 1883 and 1894. From 1903/04 degrees were awarded by the Victoria University of Manchester.

A considerable space was allocated to the library of the Manchester Medical Society (founded 1834) which until 1930 remained in their possession while accommodated in the University. The library became part of the university library at that time and remained in the building until 1981 when it was transferred into the present Main Library building of the John Rylands University Library (part of the rare books went to the John Rylands Library).^[6][7]

Additional departments were added from time to time: chronologically these were pharmaceutics, dentistry, public health.^[8] A dental hospital was associated with the department of dentistry.

Until 1908 the Manchester Royal Infirmary was at Piccadilly a mile away from the school but in 1908 it moved to a new site on Oxford Road much nearer the medical school and the two institutions were interdependent.

The medical school expanded greatly in the 1950s, culminating in the opening of the Stopford Building in 1973, and additionally providing clinical studies for students who had completed their pre-clinical studies at St Andrews.^{[citation needed]}

The Medical School today

Pre-clinical teaching is based in the Stopford Building in Oxford Road, Manchester for the first two years. Clinical teaching takes place over three teaching 'sectors' or NHS trusts in Greater Manchester: Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (incorporating the Manchester Royal Infirmary, Saint Mary's Hospital for Women and Children, and the Children's Hospital, opened in June 2009); Salford Royal (Hope Hospital); and the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust in Wythenshawe; and one in Lancashire, Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (Preston). Some of the students who have completed their pre-clinical education at the Bute Medical School, University of St Andrews, join students who have completed pre-clinical years in Manchester to do their clinical years together.

Notable alumni

• The first female medical student to qualify Catherine Chisholm practised as a GP and paediatrician after graduating. She retired in 1948 having founded the Manchester Babies' Hospital (afterwards the Duchess of York Hospital) in 1914.^[9][10]
• Dr Rachael Faye Hill graduated from the School in 2010 at the age of 21 years and 352 days, making her the youngest doctor to graduate in the United Kingdom.^[11]

References

1. ^ "School of Medicine". The University of Manchester. http://www.medicine.manchester.ac.uk/aboutus/factsandfigures/. Retrieved 2010-11-09. 
2. ^ "www.ukmedicalschools.com UK Medical School Statistics". ukmedicalschools.com. http://www.ukmedicalschools.com/index.php?pageid=stats. Retrieved 2008-09-08. ^{[dead link]}
3. ^ The part in the foreground is the extension of 1894, to the left is the part added in 1883, further left the original buildings of 1874 (mostly out of view)
4. ^ Fiddes, Edward (1941) "Admission of Women to Full University Status", in: Tylecote, Mabel. The Education of Women at Manchester University 1883 to 1933; reprinted in Charlton, H. B. (1951) Portrait of a University. Manchester: U. P.; pp. 153–162
5. ^ "Catherine Chisholm". http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/612328/dr%20catherine%20chisholm%20(large%20print).rtf. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
6. ^ Brockbank, E. M. (1929) "The Manchester Medical Society", in: The Book of Manchester and Salford; written for the British Medical Association. Manchester: George Falkner & Sons, 1929; pp. 229-32
7. ^ Isherwood, Ian & Mohr, Peter (2000) Medical Men and Medical Science: a history of the library of the Manchester Medical Society 1834-1998. Manchester : Portico Library
8. ^ The Book of Manchester and Salford; written for the British Medical Association. Manchester: George Falkner & Sons, 1929; pp. 75–85
9. ^ "Catherine Chisholm". http://www.mosi.org.uk/media/612328/dr%20catherine%20chisholm%20(large%20print).rtf. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 
10. ^ Mohr, Peter D. (2003) "Dr Catherine Chisholm (1879-1952) of the Manchester Babies' Hospital", in: Manchester Memoirs; vol. 140 (2001/02), pp. 21-30
11. ^ "Britain's youngest doctor graduates at the tender age of just 21". Daily Mail. 2010-07-14. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1294713/Britains-youngest-doctor-graduates-tender-age-just-21.html. Retrieved 2010-08-09. 

Further reading

• Elwood, Willis J. & Tuxford, A. Felicité (eds.) (1984) Some Manchester Doctors: a biographical collection to mark the 150th anniversary of the Manchester Medical Society, 1834-1984. Manchester: Manchester University Press

External links

• Manchester Medical Society official website; includes a brief history of the society

Coordinates: 53°27′50″N 2°13′51″W / 53.46389°N 2.23083°W / 53.46389; -2.23083