The University of Birmingham Medical School is one of the largest medical schools in the UK, based on the university’s Edgbaston campus right next to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Birmingham. Birmingham is ranked 26th out of 40 for Medicine in the Guardian University Guide 2027, with over 91% of students satisfied with their teaching, and 27th in the Complete University Guide 2027 (up from 28th in 2026). The university has also been named Daily Mail University of the Year 2027.
Birmingham introduced a new curriculum in 2026. In Years 1 and 2, you’ll have daily teaching on campus, including lectures, small group teaching, anatomy practicals and self-guided study, as well as one day a week of clinical skills, alternating between simulated practice and General Practice.
From Year 3 onwards, you’ll spend most of your time on clinical placement. The curriculum is structured as follows:
You’ll also learn alongside students studying pharmacy, biomedical science and nursing, and the medical school highlights that its prescribing teaching leads to some of the highest pass rates in the national Prescribing Safety Assessment.
Birmingham offers community based medicine placements as early as week two in your first year and these continue throughout your course, with around 131 GP practices across the West Midlands. Full-time clinical placements begin in year 3, but prior to this you'll complete a hospital orientation day in year 1 and a two-week Hospital Preparation Course in year 2. As the new curriculum is being introduced, the exact placement structure may change, so check the placements page for the latest information.
Within its teaching of anatomy, Birmingham offers experience of prosection (using human bodies that have already been dissected) as part of its small group teaching. You will also have opportunities to explore human anatomy on a “large touch-screen under the guidance of anatomy tutors and demonstrators”, alongside 3D software, ultrasound and anatomical models. If you’d like hands-on dissection experience, you can choose to intercalate in Clinical Anatomy.
Birmingham Medical School places students in 15 hospitals across the West Midlands, and you’ll experience hospitals at different distances from the university during your course:
If you’re placed at Hereford County Hospital, accommodation is provided.
Gain access to a recording of our free webinar and find out what a day in the life of medical student Helen looks like. There's also videos covering all aspects of medical school applications and the UCAT.
"I would like to thank you for providing a useful and detailed webinar giving me a better understanding and an insight into what medicine has to offer."
In your final year, you’ll complete a six-week elective, after your Medical Licensing Assessment. This can be a clinical, research, laboratory, education or leadership placement, and can take place in the UK or abroad.
The curriculum at Birmingham Medical School also provides the opportunity to explore topics of your choice through Student Selected Components (SSCs).
You’ll also have the option to intercalate, usually between Years 2 and 3. Birmingham offers a wide range of intercalated degrees, including Medical Sciences, Clinical Anatomy, Medical Humanities, Human Neuroscience, and Health Management and Leadership, as well as intercalated Masters degrees in areas such as public health, health data science and artificial intelligence in healthcare. You can find more information on the intercalated degrees page.
Outside of the curriculum, Birmingham Medical School has a large MedSoc, which describes itself as the UK’s largest student medical society, with over 3,000 members and more than 60 societies, sports teams and charities.
With its diverse population and partnerships with GP surgeries in a mixture of “inner city, suburban and some rural settings”, Birmingham Medical School boasts “maximum exposure to a range of patients and conditions”.
Other selling points you could mention at interview include:
Birmingham has lowered its standard offer for 2027 entry. The typical entry requirements are:
BTECs, Access courses and foundation programmes aren’t accepted. You must also be at least 18 years old by 1 October in the year you start the course. You can find the full entry requirements on the course page. For a comparison with other medical schools, take a look at our guide to medicine entry requirements.
Widening access: eligible applicants can receive a contextual offer of AAB, and students who complete the Pathways to Birmingham programme can receive an offer of ABB.
The University of Birmingham Medical School uses the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format for its interviews. Around 1,300 of the highest-scoring applicants are invited to interview each year, and 700 to 800 offers are made.
For 2026 entry, ‘home applicants’ attended face-to-face interviews at the Medical School. These MMIs comprised of six or seven eight-minute stations (each including 2 minutes of preparation time), with a mixture of interviews, role play and calculation tasks. These stations are likely to include a combination of the following:
International applicants are interviewed online via Zoom, with at least two MMI stations and a separate online calculation assessment.
Interviews usually take place in January and February, and all decisions are made on UCAS by mid-March. You can find more information about the interview process on Birmingham Medical School’s website here.
Most medical schools require you to pass an admissions exam before you’ll be invited for interview.
Admissions exam for Birmingham: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
The UCAT aims to assess the characteristics, attitudes and professional behaviours required for medical school. The exam now includes 4 subtests: Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning and Situational Judgement (SJT). Abstract Reasoning has been removed from the test.
For 2027 entry, the UCAT is being held between 13 July and 24 September 2026. Birmingham doesn’t use a minimum UCAT cut-off score.
Your score for the UCAT is combined with your GCSE results and any contextual score (if relevant) to determine if you’ll be invited to interview. For home applicants, you’re given an application score out of 10, made up of:
Your personal statement isn’t scored. Places to study at Birmingham are then offered based on interview performance and SJT scores only, with each MMI station and your SJT band carrying equal weight (Band 1 receives full marks and Band 4 receives none). Therefore, performing well in the UCAT is crucial for your Birmingham Medical School application.
For 2025 entry, the admissions statistics were as follows:
| Applicants | Applications | Interviews | Offers | Lowest UCAT invited to interview |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Home (standard) | 578 | 400 | 315 | 2680 |
| Home (all) | 1,503 | 1,061 | 845 | – |
| International | 438 | 117 | 79 | 2920 |
Source: University of Birmingham MBChB admissions statistics. These UCAT scores are based on the previous UCAT format, which included Abstract Reasoning, so they aren’t directly comparable with scores from the current test.
To help you to prepare effectively for all sections of the UCAT, we’ve developed the free Medibuddy UCAT question bank, which uses artificial intelligence to carefully select questions based on your strengths and weaknesses. This means that you’ll be focusing on the areas of the syllabus which you need to improve, rather than aimlessly answering random UCAT questions.
The question bank dashboard (below) also makes it easy to see how you’re performing in each section. For example, for SJT (which is used to determine if you’ll secure a place at Birmingham) you can see your calculated skill level, the total number of questions you’ve answered and the number answered correctly, as well as your response time. This allows you to see at a glance whether you’ve “mastered” the section or need to dedicate more time to it.
You’ll find guidance on how to prepare for the UCAT and more information on the exam on our website.
You can also see how other medical schools use the test in our guide to UCAT universities.
Tuition fees for students starting in 2026/27 are:
Fees for 2027/28 haven’t been confirmed yet, so check the course page for the latest information.
Good luck with your application to Birmingham! For more help, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK.
