Simon Riley

Originally from the north of England, Simon has significantly shaped education at Edinburgh Medical School.

His tenure as director of student selected components on the MBChB programme during the 2000s changed how thousands of medical students engaged with the curriculum, allowing them to pursue areas of interest and potentially shape their career paths by developing a more flexible curriculum.

Building on this experience, Simon later developed  "student-led, individually created courses" (SLICCs) - an experiential reflective learning and assessment framework that championed student choice and across the university.

In 2004, Simon established the reproductive biology honours programme, nurturing over a thousand biomedical and intercalating students with rich insights into the field. His role as director of teaching in Clinical Sciences further demonstrates his commitment to innovative education, notably in developing part-time online postgraduate programmes. 

Simon is also a bioscientist, working at the interface with clinical obstetrics.