Every UK medical school teaches the same core medicine, but no two teach it the same way. The course structure, how much anatomy you’ll see, the hospitals you’re placed in, the UCAT score you’ll realistically need and the style of interview you’ll face all vary — and interviewers will expect you to explain why you chose them.
This section has a dedicated page for each of the 42 UK medical schools covered in this guide, written to help you decide where to apply and to prepare for the questions you’ll be asked once you get there.
What you’ll find on each medical school page
Every page follows the same structure, so you can compare medical schools side by side:
- Course overview –where the medical school sits in the latest Guardian and Complete University Guide medicine tables, the size of the course and anything unusual about it.
- Teaching Overview –the teaching methods used, the planned clinical contact and whether the medical school offers dissection and/or prosection.
- Teaching Hospitals / Clinical Partnerships –the teaching hospitals and NHS trusts the medical school lists as using or partnering with.
- Extracurricular / Additional Opportunities –opportunities for Student Selected Components (SSCs), elective projects and intercalated degrees.
- Selling Points –additional strengths worth drawing on when you explain your reasons for wanting to study there, including alternative entry routes such as graduate entry, foundation and gateway years.
- Entry Requirements –the A level, Scottish Higher, IB and GCSE grades asked for, along with subject requirements and any contextual offers.
- Admissions Exam –which admissions test the medical school uses, how heavily it’s weighted and, where the school publishes them, the scores that got applicants to interview last cycle.
- Interview Information –the interview format used, what’s being assessed, and our top tips for that specific medical school.
- Tuition Fees –the published fees for UK and international students.
- Key Dates –the deadlines that matter for 2027 entry.
How UK medical schools differ
If you’re still deciding where to apply, these are the differences worth comparing:
- Course structure –integrated courses mix science teaching with clinical contact from year one, while more traditional courses keep the pre-clinical and clinical years separate. Problem-based learning (PBL) and case-based learning (CBL) courses build the teaching around cases you work through in small groups, with fewer lectures and more independent study.
- Anatomy teaching –some medical schools teach anatomy through full-body dissection, others use prosections, models and imaging. It’s a genuine preference, and one worth having an answer ready for.
- Clinical placements –where you’ll spend your clinical years, how early placements start and how far you’ll need to travel. Some courses spread students across a wide region; others keep most placements in one city.
- Entry requirements –grades vary, and so do the subject rules. Some medical schools require chemistry and biology at A level, others ask for chemistry plus one further science. GCSE requirements differ far more than most applicants expect.
- Admissions exam –almost every UK medical school now uses the UCAT, but how much it counts varies enormously. Some rank applicants largely on their UCAT score, others apply a minimum threshold, and a small number — such as Buckingham, which uses its own Multiple Mini Assessment — don’t use the UCAT at all.
- Interview format –most medical schools use multiple mini interviews (MMIs), a circuit of short stations. Others use panel interviews, and Oxford and Cambridge run their own tutorial-style interviews.
- Extra years –intercalation is compulsory at some medical schools and optional at others, and graduate entry, foundation and gateway routes are only offered at some.
Choosing where to apply
You can apply to a maximum of four medical schools through UCAS, with a fifth choice available for a different course. Making those four count matters more than picking the best-known names:
- Apply where your UCAT score is competitive. Each page sets out how that medical school uses the UCAT, and many publish the scores that got applicants to interview last year.
- Check the GCSE and A level small print before you commit a choice. More applications are filtered out on requirements than on grades.
- Include at least one medical school where you’d be a strong applicant rather than a borderline one.
- Think about the interview style. If you’re far more comfortable in a structured MMI circuit than in a panel discussion, that’s a legitimate reason to favour one medical school over another.
- Be honest about location and cost. Five or six years is a long time to spend somewhere you’d rather not be.
Key dates for 2027 entry
- 13 July – 24 September 2026 – UCAT test window (now closed for 2027 entry)
- 15 October 2026, 18:00 – UCAS application deadline for medicine
- November 2026 onwards – interview invitations and interviews
- Spring 2027 – decisions are issued and you reply to your offers
- August 2027 – A level results and UCAS confirmation
Individual medical schools set their own interview windows and internal deadlines, so always check the Key Dates section on the page for each of your choices.
Using these pages in your interview
“Why this medical school?” is asked in some form at almost every interview, and a generic answer is obvious to an interviewer. The strongest answers connect something specific about the course to something specific about you: a teaching method that suits how you learn, an SSC or intercalated degree that matches an interest you can evidence, the placement structure, or the patient population you’d be working with.
Pick two or three concrete details from the medical school’s page, check them against the medical school’s own website — every page links to its sources — and be ready to explain why they matter to you.
Choose a medical school from the list below to get started. For broader help with your application, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK, and use the free Medibuddy question bank to prepare for the UCAT.
All information provided is correct for 2027 entry and has been sourced from the individual medical schools’ websites, all of which are linked in the relevant sections, should you wish to research them further.
