The University of Dundee School of Medicine is based inside Ninewells Hospital, so you’ll be learning in a working NHS hospital from your very first weeks. Dundee is ranked 8th out of 40 for Medicine in the Guardian University Guide 2027, with over 90% of students satisfied with their teaching and a career prospects score of 99, and 11th in the Complete University Guide 2027, where the university reports it is joint top in the UK for graduate prospects in Medicine.
The University of Dundee School of Medicine offers a spiral curriculum, using a range of teaching methods to support learning, including:
Levels 1–3 begin with a Foundations of Medicine block covering the science that underpins the human body, before moving on to systems-based teaching of the body’s organ systems. This classroom learning is paired with clinical contact from the start: you’ll meet real patients on wards, in outpatient clinics and in general practice from early in Level 1, and you’ll learn to take a clinical history and perform a clinical examination in your first year – something Dundee points out is unusually early.
During Levels 4 and 5, you will undertake a variety of clinical attachments within hospital and primary care settings, exploring a range of specialities. You’ll begin with a transition block designed to help you get the most out of ward-based learning, then rotate around hospitals and primary care centres. Level 4 covers all the clinical specialities taught earlier in the programme, and Level 5 includes an eight-week Foundation Assistant block, where you work with the same clinical team, shadowing and learning from the ward doctors.
Anatomy is a real feature of the course. Thiel-embalmed cadavers keep flexible, realistic tissue and full joint mobility, so dissection is as close to working on a living person as possible, and you’ll also develop scalpel handling and suturing skills. You’ll be assessed through essays, case discussions, online exams, anatomy spot tests, OSCEs and a professional portfolio, and you’ll sit the national Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) so that you’re ready to be licensed when you graduate.
More information about the teaching and assessment at Dundee School of Medicine can be found here.
Dundee School of Medicine is integrated with Ninewells Hospital, where you’ll be based throughout your course. Ninewells Hospital is “one of Europe’s largest teaching hospitals”, and because the medical school sits on the hospital site you’ll share teaching spaces, labs and clinical skills facilities with the staff treating patients next door. Dundee operates an open-door policy for medical students, so you can access the wards and speak to patients at any time, and the majority of lecturers are clinicians at Ninewells.
Your learning is also “complemented by several other hospital sites and general practices across Scotland”. NHS Forth Valley, for example, welcomes Dundee students for placements in a range of specialities at Forth Valley Royal Hospital.
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You'll undertake student selected components (SSCs) in Levels 2, 3 and 5 of the course. These provide you with the opportunity to explore areas of interest in more depth and develop your 'wider skillset', either on placement or on a project supervised by a subject expert. Recent examples include placements in pathology, microbiology, biochemistry and surgery, community outreach projects, quality improvement projects, and development work in innovation and technology.
During Level 5, you will undertake an eight-week elective, focusing on an area of interest to you, which can be carried out overseas.
The University of Dundee also gives you the choice of completing an intercalated degree; this allows you one year out of your regular medical course, between Year 3 and Year 4, to complete an intercalated BMSc in a topic of your choice – options range from Anatomy to Cancer and Personalised Medicine to Healthcare Improvement. More information about this can be found here.
Away from the curriculum, Dundee University Medical Society (DUMS) describes itself as the oldest and biggest student society in Dundee, running more events than any other medical school society in the UK, with spin-off societies, sports clubs and a “medic families” scheme linking students across year groups.
As well as the standard entry medicine degree (Medicine MBChB), the University of Dundee also offers the following medical programmes:
Other selling points you could mention at interview include:
The typical entry requirements for 2027 entry are:
Dundee doesn’t publish a minimum age for entry, but there are a few other requirements to be aware of: you’ll need a satisfactory disclosure check before starting, you must have completed academic study in the three years before the course begins, and resits aren’t accepted. Current undergraduates can’t be considered unless they’re final-year students applying through the graduate route. The SWAP East Access to Medical Sciences course (AAA, with over 80% in all key subject areas) is accepted, and medicine is a controlled subject, so the number of places is set each year by the Scottish Funding Council. You can find the full entry requirements on the course page, and compare them with other schools in our guide to medicine entry requirements.
Widening access: Dundee’s contextual admissions policy takes into account factors such as living in a SIMD quintile 1 postcode, receiving free school meals, being a carer, being care experienced or estranged, or being a refugee or asylum seeker. If you evidence one of these, you’ll be assessed against the widening access entry requirements and will normally be interviewed – but you must provide your evidence no later than one week after the 15 October UCAS deadline. Dundee also runs the Gateway to Medicine course (A104) for Scottish-domiciled widening access students, which leads to a direct entry place on Level 1 of the MBChB if you reach a good standard, and the Scotland-wide REACH programme for senior-phase pupils considering medicine.
Dundee has moved away from the Multiple Mini Interview format. Your interview now comes in two parts: an observed preparatory group discussion, followed by a structured discussion with an assessor. In the first stage you’ll discuss a specific scenario in a group with five other applicants, using broad prompts to structure your discussion, while an assessor observes without taking part – this takes around 30 minutes. Your group then moves to another room to meet a different assessor, who directs a conversation framed around some of the same points.
Interviews are held in person at the School of Medicine’s Ninewells campus, and involve staff and students from the School of Medicine. If you’re an international applicant, you’ll be given the option of an online interview using Blackboard Collaborate. UK applicants are asked to attend in person, although requests for an online interview are reviewed case by case.
The whole thing lasts 1 hour and 40 minutes, including registration and a welcome, with an optional tour and Q&A session of around 30 minutes afterwards. You’ll need government-issued photo ID, and Dundee asks you to dress smartly – school uniform is fine – and not to discuss the scenarios with other applicants or online.
The interview aims to assess the following:
Dundee holds its in-person and online interviews in January, so it’s wise not to book holidays over that period. Invitations are released in phases by email (not through UCAS), usually with at least two weeks’ notice. Your personal statement may be discussed at interview, but it isn’t scored or used to decide who gets an interview. You can find more information on Dundee's website here.
Most medical schools require you to pass an admissions exam before you’ll be invited for interview.
Admissions exam for Dundee: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
The UCAT aims to assess your characteristics, attitudes and professional behaviours against those required for medical school. The exam 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. Dundee’s entry requirements specify that you need to complete the UCAT in the same year in which you apply. Therefore, you won’t have an opportunity to resit the exam if you don’t pass or achieve the score you’d like, as the UCAT can only be taken once per year. This means it’s essential that you prepare well for the exam to ensure that you do well first time!
Dundee has no minimum UCAT cut-off score, and confirms that UCAT Situational Judgement bands are not used as part of the initial selection for interview. Your score is considered alongside your academic record, and your personal statement isn’t scored or ranked. The most recent published figures are for 2023/24 entry:
| Group | Applications | Invited to interview | Average UCAT | Lowest UCAT |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Total | 1,951 | 844 | 2675 | 1900 |
| Home Scottish | 985 | 625 | 2662 | 1900 |
| Rest of UK and Ireland | 597 | 138 | 2723 | 2150 |
| Overseas | 368 | 81 | 2690 | 2270 |
Source: MBChB Medicine (A100) admissions statistics by year of entry.
These scores are from a cycle when the UCAT was marked out of 3600, so they aren’t directly comparable with your score out of 2700 – Dundee makes this point itself, and also cautions against using historic data to judge your chances. It’s worth noting how much contextual admissions matter here: in that cycle, 222 of 239 Category 1 contextual applicants were interviewed, with an average UCAT of 2490 compared with 2742 for non-contextual applicants.
The free Medibuddy UCAT question bank can help you to prepare effectively. Using artificial intelligence, our algorithm carefully selects questions based on your individual strengths and weaknesses with the syllabus, to ensure that you’re focusing on the areas which will make the biggest difference to your UCAT score.
The question bank dashboard (below) also clearly shows you how you’re performing within each of the subtests, with your calculated skill level, response time and the number of questions you’ve answered correctly, so you can tailor your preparation to your learning needs.
By focusing on the areas that you need to improve, rather than aimlessly answering a random mix of questions, you can have a bigger impact on your UCAT score.
You can find preparation tips and more information about the UCAT exam on our website.
You can also see how other medical schools use the test in our guide to UCAT universities.
The fees published on Dundee’s 2027 entry course page are:
For September 2026 entry the equivalent figures were £9,790 for rest-of-UK students and £55,900 for international students, made up of a £45,900 tuition fee plus a £10,000 ACT Levy charged by the Scottish Government to cover teaching costs in NHS Scotland. As the 2027/28 figures are still subject to government confirmation, check the fees and funding page for the latest information.
Good luck with your application to Dundee! For more help, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK.
