October Alumni Weekend

Reflect, Connect and Explore: Edinburgh Medical School 300 Alumni Weekends

Our Autumn Alumni Weekend will take place on 2-4 October 2026.

Both Alumni Weekends will bring together staff, students and alumni and offer an excellent opportunity to come along on your own or with classmates as part of a reunion, to reconnect and reminisce, be inspired by our current cohort of talented students and to hear from our academic colleagues about the latest research and developments as well as our plans for the future.

All day programme events are free of charge but have limited capacity. Please register via Eventbrite by 12 September 2026 if you would like to attend the day programme. A registration link will be published in the coming weeks.

Group photo of the MBChB Class of 1974 standing on the steps of the Edinburgh Futures Institute

Each weekend will also feature a formal dinner and ceilidh on the Saturday night. This will be held at the National Museum of Scotland. If you would like to join this exciting event and haven’t already signed up, please book now via ePay to secure your place.

October Alumni Weekend: Programme

Friday 2nd October

  • Time: 13:00 - 21:00
  • Location: McEwan Hall and EFI

Our Friday programme will feature talks exploring the Edinburgh Medical School today, with lots of time to connect with fellow graduates and the option to attend a public lecture in the evening.

Location: McEwan Hall

Our alumni weekend events will begin with registration and refreshments in the McEwan Hall Basement Foyers. Come along to meet other Edinburgh Medical School graduates and re-familiarise yourself with one of the most beautiful buildings on central campus.


Location: McEwan Hall

In this introductory talk, Professor Lorna Marson (Professor of Transplant Surgery and Chair of the Edinburgh Medical School 300 Steering Group) and other key staff members will update on recent developments at Edinburgh Medical School. Find out what has changed since your student days and learn about our exciting year-round activities to mark the 300-year milestone. Talks will be followed by a networking reception.


Location: Edinburgh Futures Institute 

Talk and speaker to be confirmed


Saturday 3rd October

  • Time: 10:00 - 16:30
  • Location: Edinburgh Futures Institute (plus optional tours)

On the Saturday, you will have the opportunity to join your preferred talks and activities in and around the historic Old Royal Infirmary – recently opened as the new Edinburgh Futures Institute. 

A formal dinner and ceilidh will be held on the Saturday evening at the National Museum of Scotland from 19:00 following the day programme (separate tickets required, bookings can be made via the link above).

Note: This is a parallel session - we invite you to choose and book your preferred session

Hear from our academic community about some of the fascinating research taking place at Edinburgh Medical School today.

Talks to be confirmed


Note: This is a parallel session - we invite you to choose and book your preferred session

In this session, we explore how Edinburgh Medical School graduates have used their expertise to create positive impact. Two inspiring graduates will share their personal journeys since graduation, with time for Q&A.

Talks to be confirmed


Note: This is a parallel session - we invite you to choose and book your preferred session

In this talk, alumna Miss Mhairi Collie will share reflections on combining work as a surgeon based in Edinburgh with volunteering in Africa, where she has helped women with untreated childbirth injuries for over 20 years. 

Miss Mhairi Collie MBChB MD FRCS OBE is a consultant colorectal surgeon in the Academic Department of Colorectal Surgery in Edinburgh. Since 2001, she has regularly undertaken surgery in sub-Saharan Africa treating women with obstetric related injuries. She worked for Médecins Sans Frontières initially, then in 2003 co-founded the charity “Uganda Childbirth Injury Fund”.  This charity delivers surgical treatment for over 200 women annually.  Mhairi currently volunteers for it for 5 weeks per year in Uganda, Angola and Madagascar. She felt very honoured to be recognised with a distinguished service medal from RCOG this year. She has recently published a novel to raise awareness and funding for obstetric fistula, called “The Bright Fabric of Life”. 


Note: This is a parallel session - we invite you to choose and book your preferred session

Meet our current Edinburgh Medical School students to find out how the student experience has changed. In this ‘speed-networking’ style session, you will have the opportunity to discuss a range of topics and compare experiences across decades. 


Between the morning and afternoon sessions, there will be time to take part in optional activities at your leisure. Take this time to enjoy tours and displays, learn about student projects, share your memories and explore the future role of technology in teaching at our Edinburgh Medical School 300 ‘Digital Hub’.


In 2026, the graduating class of 1976 will be asked what aspects of modern medicine and medical education they could have foreseen when they graduated themselves, fifty years ago. This presentation will indulge in some forecasting, and blue-sky thinking, as to what medicine and medical education will look like for EMS in 2076.  Our current students will then be at the end of their careers – they will be the recently-retired and professors emeritus of the 2070s. 

In this chapter of the 'Learning From Our History' public lecture series, we ask Dr Jeni Harden, lecturer at the Usher Institute, to imagine the ways in which medical education will evolve over the next fifty years, and we also ask two of our current students to present their own vision of how the profession they are just entering might change by the end of their careers.


The first professor of general practice in the world was appointed in Edinburgh, and this session will offer a history of academic general practice and primary care in the city.  Before the Royal Infirmary was built all physicians were generalists, and attended patients in their own homes; this session will take the audience through these earliest efforts at community medicine, through the story of the 19th century dispensaries for the poor, into the twentieth century, the establishment of the academic discipline of general practice, and showcase some of the exciting research being conducted today.

Speakers to be confirmed


Additional Saturday activities (various time slots, booking required):

During the day on Saturday, you will have the option to visit the Anatomy Lecture Theatre and Anatomical Museum. Due to limited capacity in the venue, we are offering hour-long slots throughout the day and ask that attendees come at their allocated ticket time. 

If you are interested in joining, please indicate your preferred time slot on the Eventbrite booking form. We will be in touch closer to the time to confirm your space:

  • 9:00 – 10:00
  • 10:00 – 11:00
  • 12:15 – 13:15
  • 13:15 – 14:15
  • 16:00 – 17:00

Are you interested in sharing your memories and perspectives on single-use medical plastics? Take part in one of two focus group sessions led by student researcher Danielle Farrow to contribute your views and learn about the work of her interdisciplinary team, After the Single Use.

After the Single Use is a bold global cooperative across four continents that promises to develop a new field of critical humanities, and social science research on medical plastics and circular healthcare economies. Through combining ethnographic and archival research with experimental methods from art, design informatics, environmental advocacy, and participatory research, the team aims to expand and transform methodologies to tackle the interdisciplinary challenges of environmental change and contribute to understandings of healthcare waste as a historical and social issue.

Danielle Farrow is a PhD student taking an ethnographic perspective on the transition away from single use plastics in the Scottish NHS and seeking to further our understanding on how concepts of value, disposability, use and reuse shift over time.

Find out more about After the Single Use

  • 12:30 – 13:15
  • 13:30 – 14:15

Sunday 4th October

  • Time: 10:00 - 14:30
  • Various locations depending on selected options

Our final day of activities features a variety of optional tours. You can choose to explore areas of the city and central campus through booking guided tours, or to rediscover Edinburgh at your own pace. We will also be sharing details about local exhibitions which you might like to attend prior to the weekend.

Please indicate your interest in the following tours via the Eventbrite booking form and we will be in touch to confirm available slots closer to the event:

  • Medical and Surgical History of Edinburgh tours
  • Student-led tours of central campus
  • Pleasance Gym tours
  • Main Library tours

Explore the wider 2026 events programme

Alongside our dedicated alumni events, we are planning a series of year-round activities and lectures which are open to all. Find out about the wider Edinburgh Medical School 300 programme through checking our events listing.

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