West China Hospital (WCH) has focused on becoming a place of medical excellence, West China School of Medicine (WCSM) has worked to train doctors who can provide that excellence for generations to come. WCSM is one of the most famous medical institutions and also a national model of higher medical education in China. It grew out of the School of Medicine of West China Union University (WCUU), which was set up by Christian missions from the United States, Great Britain, and Canada in 1914 and was among the first in China to completely adopt a Western higher education system.

When it was known as WCUU, the school was one of the first of its kind in west China to grant doctoral degrees, and the medical graduates were granted a doctoral degree in medicine by WCUU and the State University of New York (SUNY), which agreed to recognize each other's medical degrees. WCSM was approved by the Ministry of Health to launch a 7-year program of medical training in 1988 and by the Ministry of Education to launch an 8-year program in 2004, making it one of the first medical institutions to provide extended medical education. 

At present, undergraduate education consists of more than 3, 000 students in five specialties: Clinical Medicine, Nursing, Laboratory Medicine, Allied Health Professions, and Rehabilitation Medicine. Since its foundation, the school has always insisted on "rigorous and diligent" approaches in teaching and learning and continuing to provide the highest quality medical education. The school has succeeded in graduating a large number of competent medical professionals who excel clinically as well as in all aspects of being a good physician.

The graduate education of the school has 4 first-level disciplines of doctoral and master's degree authorization points, 68 master's degree points, and 67 doctoral degree points, including Clinical Medicine, Combined Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Nursing, and Medical Technology. The school enrolls about 700 masters and 400 PhDs every year.