The Medical Faculty of The University of Hong Kong is the oldest faculty in tertiary education in Hong Kong. Its origins go back to 1887, when the Hong Kong College of Medicine for Chinese was founded by the London Missionary Society. Besides training doctors and nurses, the Faculty has always been at the forefront of medical research and development of new clinical services for the benefit of mankind.

The Medical Faculty is the largest faculty in the University with more than 220 full-time teaching staff members, over 600 research staff and over 600 research postgraduate students. It is also one of the most technologically advanced medical institutions in the region.

Academic staff members in the Faculty undertake a wide spectrum of research, ranging from studies in frontier basic medical science to cutting-edge clinical research. With a view to promoting multidisciplinary research, five research centres have been established to bring together researchers in diverse fields under common interest topics and provide for collaborative academic pursuits:
- Cancer
- Heart, Brain, Hormone and Healthy Aging
- Infection and Immunology
- Public Health
- Reproduction, Development and Growth

Apart from focusing on the above major strategic research areas, the Faculty also actively participates in the following Strategic Research Themes of the University:
- Biomedical Engineering
- Genomics

The Faculty receives substantial financial support for research activities from various sources in different forms, including research grants, conference grants, and fellowships offered by the University and other funding agencies, and donations made by professional and industrial bodies and individual benefactors. In particular, the Faculty has continued to achieve outstanding results in the annual General Research Fund exercise of the Research Grants Council, securing HK$48.41 million in 2009/10.

The Medical Faculty shares with other Faculties in the University the common goals of imparting knowledge to students through research. Every department in this Faculty therefore actively participates in the training of research postgraduate students studying for the Master of Philosophy (MPhil), Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Master of Surgery (MS) degrees.

Academic staff members in the Faculty undertake a wide spectrum of research, from frontier basic medical sciences research to cutting edge clinical research. They also supervise a large number of research postgraduate students coming from local and overseas institutions. Clinical departments enjoy the flexibility to conduct and supervise research either in laboratories or in clinical settings. Studying in one of the most technologically advanced medical institutions in the region, research postgraduate students of the Faculty have the benefit of working in state-of-the-art laboratories.

The Faculty has been attracting high calibre candidates to enrol in its research postgraduate programmes. The programmes are not only popular among medical graduates, but also among graduates in the biological, biomedical, and health sciences. Graduates in physical sciences, engineering, computer sciences, and social sciences are also welcome to apply.

Research postgraduate students of the Faculty are encouraged to conduct exchange at renowned overseas institutions as part of their research studies to establish collaborative links and to widen their exposure.

Further details on research postgraduate studies and the major research areas of the Faculty can be found at http://www.med.hku.hk/rpg/.