It has been proposed that the teaching of physiology is in decline in the UK (Naftalin, 2011). This is thought to be especially true in the case of provision of practical skills.This study then sought to ascertain the current situation in terms of physiology delivery to undergraduates in a number of higher education institutions (HEI’s) in the UK. In addition, the potential for collaboration between HEI’s in order to sustain physiology as a separate discipline was explored.Sixteen institutions that offered a single physiology degree and five other institutions which had recently merged their physiology departments with other disciplines were sent a questionnaire. This asked for information concerning numbers of students studying physiology, numbers of staff delivering the programmes and the proportion of time allotted to lectures, tutorials and practicals at each institution. Furthermore, information on any current or future plans for collaboration was gathered. As a follow-up to the questionnaire five semi-structured interviews were conducted with Heads of Physiology Departments or Physiology Course Directors.Ten HEI’s responded to the questionnaire. The data revealed that 60% of respondents felt there had not been a decline in the number of students enrolled on physiology degrees at their own institution. Paradoxically 70 % of the respondents thought that physiology education in the UK generally was in decline. 60 % of the respondents indicated that collaboration with another HEI would be a possible way of safeguarding the future of physiology teaching in the UK. However, only 30 % of the respondents reported any plans to enter into such a collaboration in the near future.Interview responses revealed that one of the reasons behind a perceived decline in physiology teaching in the UK was due to physiology being subsumed into other degree programmes such as biomedical science. Additionally, loss of named Physiology departments was attributed to the focus being shifted to more molecular or disease-based multi-disciplinary research groupings. Strategies to protect the future of physiology teaching included things like changing the degree name (eg. medical physiology) but in most cases did not include any plans for collaboration. Reasons for this included lack of any perceived need to collaborate, competition between different institutions and logistical difficulties.In conclusion, this study showed large differences in the provision of different types of physiology teaching across the HEI’s, a decline in the number of students studying pure physiology degrees and loss of departments exclusively devoted to physiology research and education. Whilst collaboration and sharing of resources and expertise was viewed as a potential safeguard against further retrenchment few institutions had considered this option.