Introduction The United Kingdom needs to educate more medical students to meet workforcedemands. With static numbers of clinical teachers available, novel and efficientapproaches are required to prepare students for real-life work where doctorsroutinely work with colleagues from different medical schools. This innovativeproject was designed to investigate student attitudes towards inter-universitylearning (IUL), whereby two medical students from different universities learntogether. Materials and methods Thirteen students at Great Western Hospital,Swindon, England, volunteered and were randomlypaired with a student from another university. Pairs completed a 20-minutesimulated clinical scenario and observed three others. Students completed pre- and post-session questionnaires adapted from the Readiness for Inter-ProfessionalLearning scale. Seven students took part in semi-structured interviews whichunderwent thematic analysis. Results Quantitative analysis of post-session questionnaires demonstrated a positiveresponse to IUL. Thematic analysis generated six themes: impact on learning,impact on career, working together, recognising differences, practicalconsiderations, and psychosocial perspectives. Discussion Students enjoyed the social learning opportunity to practise team-working,communication, and role delegation with unknown peers whilst sharing differentclinical approaches. Differences in course structure meant students displayedvarying strengths, although unexpected findings centred around pre-conceptions ofboth universities and social comparison behaviours. Conclusion IUL's strength was deemed to be in non-technical skill development to prepare forreal-life work, ultimately enhancing patient safety. Practicalities to considerinclude session design and psychological safety. IUL provides a novel solution toefficiently educate future healthcare professionals and further work to explore itsbenefits on a wider scale is suggested.