The College of Medicine was conceived by the founding fathers as a Medical School which is an autonomous entity within the University of Lagos. It was founded to produce highly trained medical manpower to provide specialized medical services and to conduct research into health related problems. In October 1962, the first batch of 28 medical students were admitted into the College and they received their first lectures on October 3, 1962.

Over the past 50 years, successive leadership of the College had worked tirelessly towards the realization of the lofty goals of making the Medical School the foremost College of Medicine located in the University of first Choice and the Nations pride. The College has grown remarkably. It now has three faculties: Basic Medical Sciences, Clinical Sciences and Dental Sciences. The Faculty of Dental Sciences is today the center of Excellence for Dentistry in Nigeria. The College consists of 32 departments with a student population of almost 2000 students and a staff strength of 1,850. The College has to date produced over 6,000 graduates in disciplines of Medicine, Dentistry, Microbiology, Physiotherapy, Physiology, Radiography and Pharmacology.

It has also produced graduates with M.Sc, M.Phil and Ph.D degrees in various discipline and MD degree in Anatomy, Physiology, Medical Microbiology, Pharmacology, Pharmacy, Medicine, Clinical Pathology and Child Health & Primary Care. Great strides have been taken in providing facilities for teaching and research. The College Library now has several volumes of books and subscription to current journals with an exquisite e-learning environment. The Audio-Visual unit has acquired computers for interactive training of staff and students. The internet unit is also available to both staff and students. Current information is similarly available from the Medline search and reference access to many databases.