Professor Catherine Swales

Catherine started her medical training at University College London in 1991. Following an intercalated BSc and PhD in Neurosciences, she moved to pursue her clinical training in Oxford and qualified in 2000. She completed her postgraduate training in Nottingham before returning to Oxford to take up a Clinical Lectureship in Rheumatology in 2003. During that specialist training she developed a research interest in inflammatory disease and a new focus in medical education, particularly helping students foster and maintain research interests, and developing early aspirations for clinical academic careers. In 2012 she was elected as a Senior Fellow in the Higher Education Academy, and shortly thereafter was appointed as Associate Director of Clinical Studies for the medical school and Consultant in Rheumatology at the NOC. In 2018 she became Director of Clinical Studies, with strategic and operational oversight of all undergraduate clinical medical training at Oxford and subsequently Head of the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in 2024; she is a Governing Body Fellow at St Hilda’s College.

Within the University, Catherine has also developed the intra- and inter-divisional MB DPhil programs and the MSc in Medical Education; nationally she sits on Medical Schools Council and serves as a GMC Associate, quality assuring medical degree programs across the UK.