Records of the University of Nottingham Medical School, part of the Queen's Medical Centre; 1942-2010

Archive of the University of Nottingham, Medical School

The archive is of considerable value in tracing the planning and development of a purpose-built medical school and teaching hospital; the first medical school to be built in the U.K. in the twentieth century.

The majority of the records relate to the planning and early years of the Medical School, from the announcement of its creation on 27th July 1964, the first intake of students in 1970, through the first decade of its existence. There is little material from the 1990s onwards. A series of Early Planning Papers contains material relating to the planning and organisation of the Medical School, prior to its opening. Included in this series are the papers of the committee set up to advise on the new Medical School, the papers of the architect's firm Building Design Partnership which include plans of the QMC, material relating to the public inquiry into the site chosen for the QMC and the papers of the Planning Office.

The archive contains the records of the chief officers of the Medical School, namely the Dean and the Deputy Registrar. The majority of material dates from the time of the foundation Dean, Professor Greenfield, and the first Deputy Registrar, RJ Graham. There are also series of records from the Registrar and the Vice-Chancellor of the University. Although these were officers of the University rather than the Medical School their papers have been placed in the Medical School archive as they were stored with the Medical School collection and relate directly to the Medical School.

There is a comprehensive series of records for the governance of the school including a complete set of the minutes of the Local Joint Committee, responsible for overseeing the planning of the school and hospital. There is also a full set of minutes of the Steering Committee which was closely related to the Local Joint Committee and had responsibility for troubleshooting any serious problems that occured during the planning. The collection contains the minutes of the Board of the Faculty of Medicine and its predecessor the Board of Medical Studies from the later's creation in May 1967 through to 2004. Later minutes of this committee are retained by the School. The collection does not contain the records of the committee which was initially responsible for the governance of the university hospital, the University Hospital Management Committee, but does include a few ephemeral items relating to this body.

The collection includes a good series of printed and published material charting the development of the Medical School contained in two series, 'Historical' and 'Published and Printed Material'. The Historical series contains material from key events in the history of the Medical School, including the official opening by the Queen on 8 July 1977 and the University of Nottingham's centenary appeal in 1981. Of particular importance in the Published and Printed series is a collection of 400 photographs from the early days of the School, showing the construction of the buildings and group shots of staff and students. Other material includes files of clippings of newspaper articles about the Medical School and Hospital, a set of prospectuses from the first intake of students in 1970 through to the mid-1980s, and offprints of articles written by staff of the Medical School.

There is little material relating to students or teaching within this archive. Information concerning student admissions, class attendance or exams can be found amongst the minutes of various committees, particularly the Medical Sciences Curriculum and Examinations Committee, the Clinical Curriculum and Examinations Committee and the Faculty Board. A small amount of course material can be found in the Teaching and Learning series. Access to material which contains information about the admission, attendance or progress of individual students is restricted under the terms of the Data Protection Act.

This collection contains the records of the University of Nottingham Medical School. It does not contain the records of the University Hospital attached to the Medical School. However as the medical school and hospital were planned and built as one entity, the Queen's Medical Centre, there is naturally a small amount of material that relates both to the hospital and the medical school. The most notable example are the plans of the QMC which show both the Medical School and Teaching Hospital.

Further details about the contents of each of the individual series can be found in their individual catalogue entries.

On 27 July 1964 the Minister of Health announced in parliament that a new medical school and university hospital was to be established at the University of Nottingham. This was to be the first new medical school established in the UK in the twentieth century. Nottingham was chosen for both local and national reasons. There was a recognised need to increase the number of doctors in the country and the existing medical schools could not simply be expanded to meet this need. The University of Nottingham had wanted to open a medical school since the 1940s, when a committee had been established by parliament to make recommendations on the organisation of medical schools in England, Scotland and Wales. There was also a need in Nottingham for a major hospital development; one which could be designed from the start as a teaching hospital. At the time of the announcement of the new medical school the NHS in England was divided into fourteen health regions, with Nottingham being in the Sheffield Region. This region, which covered an area of approximately 5, 700 square miles, had the least adequate health provision of all the regions in the country. Resources within the region were concentrated in Sheffield with its established medical school, meaning that resources in Nottingham were below the already low regional average. Nottingham's claim for a medical school was enhanced by the support of the local medical profession and by the support of the City Council which gave the University £100, 000 for medical development.

Following the Minister of Health's announcement the University Council set up an advisory committee on 28 October 1964 to offer advice on the creation of a new medical school. The committee was chaired by Sir George Pickering, Regius Professor of Medicine at the University of Oxford. The committee's report, known as the Pickering Report, was received by the Council of the University in April 1965. Among its recommendations was that care should be taken to develop and strengthen links between the medical school and the rest of the university and between the hospital and the community. Recommendations were also made on the format of the curriculum, the design of the building, the staffing of the school and hospital and the form of government.

The planning of the medical school and hospital was the responsibility of both the University of Nottingham and the Sheffield Regional Hospital Board (the management board for the NHS region). To oversee the planning a Local Joint Committee was established in June 1965 made up of representatives of both bodies. A Planning Team was appointed and reported directly to the Local Joint Committee.

The Planning Team was established in October 1965 and had four core members, two seconded from the Regional Hospital Board and two from the University of Nottingham. The Regional Hospital Board members were Dr JA Scott and Mr JT Dann. The University appointed Professor Wood of the University of Leeds as an advisor, until the first Dean of the Medical School was appointed. He was joined on the Planning Team by RJ Graham who was appointed as Deputy Registrar of the Medical School. These core members were initially supported by a consulting architect, engineer and quantity surveyor, with other members joining over the course of the project. The Planning Team's first task was to create an 'outline of functions' setting out the proposed facilities and functions of the new hospital. They also had to create schedules of the accommodation needed for all the university departments.

Recruitment of staff of the University of Nottingham Medical School began in earnest in March 1966 with the advertisement of the Deanship. Professor Greenfield was appointed as the foundation Dean in June 1966 and as Chair of the Department of Physiology. Following the Dean's appointment the Chairs of Human Morphology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Medicine and Community Medicine were advertised. Together with the Chair of Physiology these were the six Foundation Chairs of the Medical School. Once appointed the foundation professors assisted in the planning of their departments and the medical school generally.

The Medical School was initially governed by a Board of Medical Studies, reporting to the Senate. The Board was made up of members of academic staff, as they were appointed, together with Dr Shone and Dr Scott from the Regional Hospital Board. The Board of Medical Studies was in existence from May 1967 to November 1969. In December 1969 it was replaced by the Board of the Faculty of Medicine.

The building of the medical school and hospital was planned in phases, with the first phase originally scheduled for completion by October 1970, when the first students were due to arrive. The hospital was to be brought into operation progressively from 1973 and to be fully open in 1975. Building work on the medical school and hospital was however severely delayed due to difficulties in acquiring the chosen site. The site chosen for the new medical school and hospital was on Clifton Boulevard, on land adjacent to the University of Nottingham. The land was already the site of an industrial estate and occupied by a number of firms, some of which objected to the compulsory sale of their land to the University. These objections led to a Public Inquiry into the reasons for choosing the site, which found in the university's favour. After an appeal by one of the firms possession of the site was finally obtained in 1971, three years later than was originally planned.

All parties concerned in the planning of the medical school and hospital were determined that the delay in acquiring the site should not lead to a postponement in the intake of students. Plans had already been made for a new building for the School of Pharmacy on the University campus. Building work for this was brought forward. It was agreed that this building would house most of the medical sciences accommodation needed to get the medical school launched in 1970, and after the medical school had moved out would provide permanent accommodation for the School of Pharmacy. It was arranged for clinical teaching to began in existing Nottingham hospitals in 1973 until the new teaching hospital was ready. Building work on the permanent medical school and teaching hospital began in 1971. The firm of Building Design Partnership were appointed as architects, civil and structural engineers and quantity surveyors and the firm of E.G. Phillips Son & Partners were appointed as consulting electrical and mechanical engineers.

The first intake of 48 students were admitted to the medical school in 1970. Following the advice of the Pickering Committee the curriculum was divided into three parts. The first was a period of three years of training as a biological scientist, at the end of which students would gain a degree in Medical Biological Sciences (BMedSci). The second part of the curriculum was two years of clinical training in hospital. Following this graduates had to undertake a pre-registration year of in-service training in approved posts. The first B.Med.Sci degrees were awarded in 1973. The first medical degrees were awarded in 1975. In 1976 the first graduates completed their pre-registration year and were registered by the General Medical Council.

Following the appointment of the six foundation professors in 1966-1967, and the arrival of the first students in 1970, the medical faculty was gradually developed. Clinical academic departments were established in existing Nottingham hospitals, with NHS consultants invited to accept the university title of Clinical Teacher, and to take part in clinical teaching. When full scale clinical teaching began in 1973 the clinical departments of Surgery, Psychiatry, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Child Health and Therapeutics had been established in the existing hospitals. These departments were gradually strengthened with the appointment of additional professors and readers.

As the size of the medical faculty increased so too did the number of students. From the very beginning of the medical school there was pressure to increase the intake of students from the number originally planned. Teaching began with 48 students in 1970. In 1975 the intake of students was doubled to 96 with plans to increase it further to 120 students by 1978. Student intake has continued to increase and in addition to the five year undergraduate medical course, a graduate level entry course and an undergraduate course with a foundation year are also available.

Phase 1 of the building work, comprising most of the medical school accommodation and 440 hospital beds was completed in 1977. The University of Nottingham Medical School and University Hospital was officially opened by the Queen on 28 July 1977 and named 'Queen's Medical Centre'.

Records have been grouped by function then arranged in series within those groupings.

The majority of the collection is accessible to all registered readers but records containing information on the academic careers of individual students or staff members are closed to general access for a period of up to 100 years from date of creation. Please contact the department for further advice.

Reprographic copies can be supplied for educational and private study purposes only, depending on access status and the condition of the documents.

Identification of copyright holders of unpublished material is often difficult.

Permission to make any published use of any material from the collection must be sought in writing from the Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections

The history of the Medical School is well documented in both this collection and in the private papers of several early academics and administrators. The records were retained by the School until being transferred to Manuscripts and Special Collections in October 2012.

The University of Nottingham, Manuscripts and Special Collections: Papers of Professor David Greenfield, foundation Dean of the University of Nottingham Medical School; 1938-2005 (Reference PDG)

Records of the Nursing Studies Unit, later the Department of Nursing, University of Nottingham; 1970s-1996 (Reference: UAD1)

The University of Nottingham, Manuscripts and Special Collections: Papers of Professor Sam Shone (died 1986), Medical Administrator, 1962-1975 (Reference: Sh)

The University of Nottingham, Manuscripts and Special Collections: Papers of John Coggins, former Medical Librarian (Reference: HAC)