Edge Hill University Medical School is one of the UK’s newest medical schools, with a community-focused MBChB built around early clinical placements and widening access to medicine. Edge Hill sits 29th out of 40 for Medicine in the Guardian University Guide 2027 and 38th in the Complete University Guide 2027, but its teaching is rated highly, with over 92% of students satisfied in the Guardian table – and, having guided its first cohort to graduation in July 2025, the University is now approved by the General Medical Council (GMC) to award full UK medical degrees.
Edge Hill University Medical School adopts a spiral curriculum and focuses on delivering this throughout the first two years with a hybrid model of case-based learning and team-based learning. The curriculum also incorporates the following teaching methods:
The medical school also follows a non-modular approach, with the curriculum centred around sixteen key themes, which you can explore in more detail here under ‘themes’. Each year also has its own overarching theme, with patient safety and professionalism running throughout: the life sciences and the seven core body systems in Year 1; where and how people receive health care in Year 2; multi-disciplinary care for specific patient groups in Year 3; the patient journey between primary and secondary care in Year 4; and preparedness for practice in Year 5.
The course involves early clinical placements with a focus on community and mental healthcare settings, as well as exposure to medicine, surgery and a range of hospital specialities. Placements are in the North West of England, and you’ll pay your own travel and parking costs. Between placements you’ll return to the University for consolidation weeks covering public health, research methods, professionalism and extra clinical skills.
Within Year 5, you will undertake an 'apprentice year', which will include student assistantships, a specialist placement and a focus on acute medicine, to prepare you for future practice. You’ll be assessed through written exams, objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs), research projects and a portfolio, as well as on placement, and you’ll need to pass the national Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) to graduate.
Anatomy is taught without cadaveric dissection. Instead, you’ll learn in the anatomy and ultrasound resource centre, equipped with Anatomage tables and ultrasound scanners, within the multi-million-pound Clinical Skills and Simulation Centre, which also has a ward, operating theatre, consultation rooms and full-body patient simulators.
Edge Hill takes an unusual approach to placements: rather than moving site for every rotation, students are allocated a base trust for the duration of their training, with visits to tertiary centres for specialist training. Recent graduates describe being based at Whiston Hospital and Wigan Hospital, with specialist experience at Alder Hey Children’s Hospital and The Walton Centre, alongside GP placements across the region.
You’ll also spend time outside the NHS: in Year 2, students find their own voluntary organisation placement with a local voluntary sector organisation, such as Cancer Research UK, The Brain Charity or Food Cycle.
Edge Hill Medical School funds summer research internships for MBChB students in Years 1 to 3: for summer 2026 there were ten four-week internships funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), each with a stipend of around £1,889.
The Medical School also supports students who want to undertake an intercalated master’s degree between Year 3 and Year 4. Intercalations run for 12 months from September, and funding – including a stipend – may be available for a limited number of places if you’ve passed all your third-year assessments.
There are opportunities to complete an elective too, with recent students reporting placements as far afield as Canada. Away from the curriculum, you can join the Students’ Union’s EHSU Medical Society, which runs sports, socials and the annual med ball, and the student-led Medical Research Society.
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Edge Hill University also offers an integrated MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year, allowing you to progress onto the MBChB Medicine course following successful completion of the Foundation Year. You can find more information about their Foundation Year programme here.
Other selling points you could mention at interview include:
The typical entry requirements for 2027 entry are:
You must be 18 or above on the first day of the course, and applicants classed as international for fee purposes are not currently eligible to apply. BTEC Extended Diplomas aren’t accepted, but a QAA-approved Access to HE Diploma (Medicine) is, with 45 Level 3 credits at distinction including at least 15 each in Chemistry and Biology. Deferred entry isn’t offered. Full details are on the course page, and you can compare schools using our guide to medicine entry requirements.
Widening access: the six-year MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year (A110) is for students who have lived in the North West of England for at least a year, with a typical offer of BBB including Biology and Chemistry. You’ll need to have attended a non-selective state school with a below-average Attainment 8 score (or a non-selective state school plus a POLAR4 quintile 1 or 2 postcode or an Index of Multiple Deprivation decile of 4 or below), plus one further criterion such as a household income below £35,000, parents who didn’t go to university, having been in care or being a young carer. Edge Hill also extends its UCAT threshold for applicants who meet specific widening participation criteria or who have completed its Widening Access to Medicine (WAM) programme.
Edge Hill University Medical School uses the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format for its interview. Interviews are stage 3 of a four-stage selection process, and every candidate who passes the UCAT ranking stage is interviewed – no offers are made without an interview.
For 2027 entry, Edge Hill hasn’t yet published its interview details: the course page lists the interview and scoring stages as “TBC”, so keep checking it and your emails after the UCAS deadline.
The interview will assess a variety of skills and characteristics required for a career in medicine, mapped onto the NHS Constitution values and Edge Hill’s own values, including:
Each station is scored, the scores are combined and applicants are ranked by their overall MMI score, with offers made to the top-ranking students. Your personal statement and reference may only be used to separate applicants who tie at the threshold. The full list of attributes, and how the MMI is scored, is in Edge Hill’s admissions policy supplement.
Most UK medical schools require you to pass an admissions exam before you’ll be invited for interview.
Admissions exam for Edge Hill: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
The UCAT will assess that you have the characteristics, attitudes and professional behaviours required for medical school. The exam is now made up of 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. You must sit it in the cycle in which you apply, so reapplicants have to take the test again.
As well as meeting the minimum academic criteria, Edge Hill’s entry requirements specify that you must meet the UCAT threshold that they set in order to be invited to interview. Applicants are ranked on their total UCAT score, and the threshold is set depending on how many interviews are being held that year, so it changes from cycle to cycle. You must also score a band 3 or higher on the SJT subtest, as any candidate scoring band 4 (the lowest band) will automatically be rejected. The threshold is extended for applicants who meet specific widening participation criteria or who have completed Edge Hill’s Widening Access to Medicine programme. Edge Hill doesn’t publish its cut-off scores, and figures from cycles before 2026 entry were scored out of 3600 on the previous five-subtest format, so they aren’t directly comparable with today’s scores out of 2700. Therefore, to be invited for an interview at Edge Hill Medical School, it’s vital that you perform well in the UCAT.
Source: Edge Hill University MBChB selection process.
The free Medibuddy UCAT question bank will help you to prepare effectively for all sections of the exam. Using artificial intelligence, it carefully selects questions based on your individual strengths and weaknesses in the syllabus. This means that rather than aimlessly answering a random selection of questions, you’ll be focusing on the areas which you need to improve to achieve a higher UCAT score.
You can also easily identify how you’re performing in each subtest using the question bank dashboard (below). For example, for SJT (which you must score a minimum band 3) you can see at a glance your calculated skill level and the number of questions you’ve answered in total and correctly, so you know if you’ve “mastered” this area or need to dedicate more time to it.
There’s more support for preparing for the UCAT on our website and information on the exam in our UCAT Complete Guide.
You can also see how other medical schools use the test in our guide to UCAT universities.
Tuition fees for UK students are:
Edge Hill isn’t currently able to accept applicants classed as international for fee purposes, so there’s no international fee. An NHS bursary is available, subject to availability, in the later years of the course. Check the fees and funding pages for the latest information.
Good luck with your application to Edge Hill! For more help, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK.
