By 1944 the B.C. Medical Association, the Provincial Government, and the university actively discussed establishing a Faculty of Medicine. In 1949, following some controversy over the school's location and the availability of hospital beds, a compromise was reached. As a result, the Faculty of Medicine was established at U.B.C. Dr. Myron M. Weaver, formerly Assistant Dean at the University of Minnesota Medical School was appointed Dean in July 1949. Administrative offices and classrooms were established in temporary army huts. Clinical training took place off-campus at Vancouver General Hospital and other Health Centre's designated by agreement as "Teaching Hospitals." U.B.C. admitted its first class of 60 medical students in September 1950.
The Faculty of Medicine of the University of British Columbia, which includes a Medical School, a School of Rehabilitation Sciences (Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy) and a School of Audiology and Speech Sciences, is closely affiliated with the prominent Vancouver teaching hospitals (St. Paul's, Shaughnessy and Grace Hospitals; Vancouver General Hospital and Health Sciences Centre; Providence Health Care; Children's and Women's Health Centre of B.C and the B.C. Cancer Agency) and the Vancouver / Richmond Health Board and an additional sixty hospitals throughout B.C.
A set of values guides the Faculty: Excellence, Integrity, Discovery, People, Learning and Partnership. In turn, these values are supported through the Faculty's mission statement, which is to advance society's knowledge, understanding, and health through education, scholarship, and health care, with excellence being an essential criterion for success. The appointment and retention of faculty members include the responsibilities to recruit faculty members who have an interest in, and talent for, education and research; to clearly define and consistently apply conditions of appointment, reappointment and promotion; and to develop and fairly use a system of remuneration, rewards, and recognition distinct from promotion alone.
The Faculty of Medicine is hierarchically organized, with the Dean of Medicine at its pinnacle. Reporting directly to the Dean are the Administration, the Associate Deans, the Departments and Schools, and the Research Centre's (including the B.C. Institute for Children's and Women's Health, Biomedical Research Centre, the Centre for Molecular Medicine and Therapeutics, the Neurodegenerative Disorders Centre, the Respiratory Disease Centre, the U.B.C. Centre for Disease Control, and the Vancouver Vascular Biology Research Centre). The Area of Administration includes the Directors of Faculty Affairs and Administration; Finance; Inter-institutional Planning; Planning, Construction and Space Utilization; the Sr. Faculty and the Faculty Development Officers. The Associate Deans are in turn responsible for Admissions. Undergraduate Education (which also has an Assistant Dean responsible for Faculty Educational Development), Student Affairs, Postgraduate (Clinical) Education, and research (which is additionally supported by four Assistant Deans, Research each of whom is the Vice President, Research in their home teaching hospital).