Our Rankings and Reputation

 

 

The Queen Mary Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry programme, the same programme you will study in Malta, was ranked second in London in the Guardian University Guide 2020, the Complete University Guide 2020 and The Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide 2019. We were also ranked second in London for student satisfaction in the 2019 National Student Survey (first in Dentistry). QS World University Rankings 2019 placed us third in the world for research citations in medicine.

World Directory of Medical Schools

We are proud to be listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools, developed through a partnership between the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) and the Foundation for Advancement of International Medical Education and Research (FAIMER). These organisations collaborate to identify new schools for inclusion in the directory and to update existing school records.

General Medical Council

After the degree: Practising in the UK

The course is accredited by the UK General Medical Council (GMC).  The GMC helps protect patients and improve medical education and practice in the UK by setting standards for students and doctors. The GMC monitors our compliance with the standards and requirements as set out in Promoting Excellence: Standards for medical education and training.

At the end of the undergraduate course, you will receive your MBBS degree, which is a primary medical qualification (PMQ) from Queen Mary University of London. Holding a PMQ entitles you to provisional registration with the General Medical Council, subject only to its acceptance that there are no Fitness to Practise concerns that need consideration.  Provisional registration is time-limited to a maximum of three years and 30 days (1125 days in total). After this time period, your provisional registration will normally expire.

In the UK, provisionally registered doctors can only practise in approved Foundation Year 1 posts: the law does not allow provisionally registered doctors to undertake any other type of work as a doctor. To apply for a Foundation Year 1 post in the UK you will need to apply during the final year of your undergraduate course through the UK Foundation Programme Office selection scheme.

To date, suitably qualified MBBS Malta graduates have been extremely successful in securing places with the UK Foundation Programme (FP), but that offers no guarantee for future years.  Queen Mary does not administer the UK Foundation Programme, and cannot control whether, or on what basis, applicants are accepted into the Programme.   Nor does Queen Mary determine immigration rights and the rules surrounding the right to work in the UK. That is an issue for the UK Government and is entirely independent of the possession of a degree that is recognised by the UK GMC for its academic content.

On 13 January 2026, the UK Government announced emergency legislation that prioritises UK medical graduates over International Medical Graduates (IMGs) in the allocation of jobs for the UK FP and speciality training and it became law in early March. Following the introduction of this legislation, QMUL Malta graduates are now designated as IMGs, despite the fact that they undertake an identical course to that taken by QMUL London students, take the same examinations, including UK national qualifying exams, and are regulated by the UK General Medical Council (GMC).

The Government was not prepared to accept any amendment to the primary legislation. We have been told that they are very sympathetic to our students’ cause and that there may be scope for some subsequent modification of this position. However, we do not yet know what that will mean in practice. The Act contains provision for the Secretary of State to include additional groups of students in the prioritised category and we continue to press the case for our graduates.

However, it is important not to overstate the implications of this new legislation. Our graduates remain eligible to apply for the UK Foundation Programme and we are very hopeful that many, if not all, will still secure posts in the UK FP in subsequent allocation rounds. The experience of previous years means that this is indeed a reasonable expectation. However, we will not know how this plays out until late June 2026 and possibly into July.

After the degree: Practising outside the UK

Completion of the Malta Foundation Programme is recognised in the UK as an equivalent academic experience to completing the UK FP including gaining full registration with the GMC at the successful completion of the two-year programme, but it will not give a doctor the same prioritisation status for UK speciality training.  Students completing a Foundation Programme anywhere else are likely to be required to undertake formal assessment before being allowed to practice in the UK.

If a graduate completes the Malta FP and still aspires to higher post-graduate training in the UK, then that remains entirely possible. Firstly, we fully expect many non-prioritised doctors will be appointed to training posts. There is also a mechanism for gaining prioritised status through experience. There are numerous ‘locally employed doctors’ working in the NHS, often called clinical fellows. A certain amount of NHS experience (likely to be two years) will qualify an individual in such a post for prioritised status in subsequent job applications. And the two years in a locally employed doctor role will not be ‘marking time’ We have been assured that experience gained in these posts will be recognised in further training.

In addition, there is an alternative route to the same status gained by someone who completes a formal training programme which allows a doctor to apply for UK consultant posts. This is portfolio-based and QMUL Malta graduates will not have a lower level of priority in applying for those posts merely by virtue of not having a degree that was gaining by studying physically in the UK.

In short, while this change in UK legislation is a challenge and we do not know quite how much will change as a result, we have reasonable expectations that it will still be entirely possible for our graduates to pursue higher training in the UK, always assuming immigration rules permit it. However, this is an evolving situation and no-one (including UK prioritised graduates) can be given a guarantee about future employment.

Students are advised to consider what their career aspirations are and determine what other countries require for them to be able to undertake their early (and later) post-graduate training. The University will help with this. It is important that a student discusses this with us early as possible.

Conclusion

We recognise that the situation is unsettling for our current students and we understand that this will be a concern to people considering applying to the QMUL Malta course. There are still many issues that require clarification and we are pursuing that clarification. We will continue to provide updates on the situation throughout the summer, so that applicants are informed of the most up-to-date information before they are required to make a final decision about accepting their offer to study on the MBBS Programme in Malta.

Successful completion of the Foundation Year 1 programme is normally achieved within 12 months (in the UK, although the full UK Foundation Programme lasts two years), and is marked by the award of a Certificate of Experience (the Malta Foundation Programme, also two years long, awards its certificate at the end of the two year programme).  You will then be eligible to apply for full registration with the General Medical Council. You need full registration with a license to practise for unsupervised medical practice in the NHS or private practice in the UK.

Although this information was currently correct at the time of writing (3/6/26), students need to be aware that regulations in this area may change from time to time.

Recognition

The Medicine MBBS Malta degree is recognised by the General Medical Council (GMC) in the UK. We also have applied for recognition in a number of countries. We are currently updating this information and it will placed online shortly.