The University of Edinburgh Medical School is the only Scottish medical school to offer a six-year MBChB, with a full year of research-based study built into the programme, and it has been leading medical education for more than 300 years. Edinburgh is ranked 4th out of 40 for Medicine in the Guardian University Guide 2027, with a maximum score of 100 for career prospects, and 13th in the Complete University Guide 2027.
The University of Edinburgh Medical School delivers its curriculum through a variety of teaching methods, including:
The majority of your teaching within the first three years will take place within university; however, you will have the opportunity to spend time within general practice settings and benefit from GP-based teaching. In Years 1 and 2 you’ll study the biomedical and clinical sciences – including anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, pathology and microbiology – alongside practical clinical skills such as resuscitation and interviewing patients, and the social and ethical aspects of medicine, covering topics such as how patients experience illness, health inequalities and public health. Most of this early teaching happens at the University’s central campus in George Square and at the Old Medical School, Teviot Place, with clinical skills sessions in the Chancellor’s Building.
Year 3 is your honours year, an academic year of ‘full-time, research-based study’ leading to a BMedSci (Hons). You will also undertake the following clinical attachments within your ‘clinical years’ (Year 4–6):
You’ll be assessed through online applied knowledge tests, clinical examinations (OSCEs), written assessments, research projects and in-course assessment, as well as your professionalism and engagement on the programme.
More information can be found under ‘what you will study’.
Edinburgh Medical School has its headquarters in the Chancellor’s Building on the Edinburgh BioQuarter campus, beside the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, which houses lecture theatres, seminar rooms and the Clinical Skills Centre – including a simulated hospital ward with SMOTS camera technology, a reconfigurable simulation room with SimMan, and a Harvey cardiopulmonary trainer. The Medical Education Centre at the Western General Hospital campus also has a clinical skills training area, library and computer laboratories.
In Years 4, 5 and 6, clinical teaching takes place in Edinburgh’s three teaching hospitals, in community GP practices in the south east of Scotland, and in hospitals across other areas of Scotland – so you’ll see both large urban teaching hospitals and smaller regional sites. You’ll receive a travel subsidy from the Medical School in Years 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6, and the school will reimburse travel expenses where you have to travel 20 miles or more each way to a clinical placement and no student accommodation is available onsite.
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Following your final exams, you will have the opportunity to undertake a six-week elective, which can be studied outside of the UK. Popular destinations include Ghana, Ethiopia, South Africa, Australia, the Caribbean, India, Samoa and the United States.
The programme at Edinburgh Medical School is six years, to include an intercalated degree, which you’ll undertake in your third year. This involves 'full-time, research-based study', resulting in a research-based Bachelor of Medical Sciences (BMedSci) Honours degree in addition to your MBChB. There are 25 different programmes to choose from, including biochemistry, neuroscience, pharmacology, psychology, sports science medicine and zoology; more information can be found here.
In addition to this, there is the option of an intercalated PhD for a small number of 'talented students' with an interest in pursuing an academic career and early training in research – a programme run jointly between Edinburgh and Glasgow. You can find more information here.
Student-selected components in Years 1, 2 and 6 add further flexibility, letting you explore topics from the clinical to the non-medical, and Year 5’s individual research project means research runs through the whole degree.
Outside of the curriculum, Edinburgh Medical School also have a variety of medical-based societies which you can get involved in, including: Student Anatomy, Student Surgical, Global Health, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, GP Society and the Royal Medical Society. The students’ association (EUSA) supports over 300 societies in total, plus sports clubs for almost every sport imaginable.
Edinburgh is the only Scottish institution to offer a six-year MBChB, which means every graduate leaves with two degrees – an MBChB and a research-based BMedSci (Hons) – and with hands-on experience of laboratory-based scientific research.
Other selling points you could mention at interview include:
The typical entry requirements for 2027 entry are:
All examination grades must be achieved at the first attempt, and resit applicants aren’t entered into the selection system except in very exceptional circumstances. Access courses are recognised as alternative routes, while no special concessions are made for mature, non-graduate applicants, who must have met the same requirements within three years of the programme start date. Competition is fierce: for 2026 entry Edinburgh received around 2,830 applications for 266 places (166 Scotland fee rate, 79 Rest of UK/Republic of Ireland and 21 Overseas/International), plus 25 additional places for Scottish applicants from SIMD 20 areas. Deferred entry is only considered for applicants undertaking compulsory national service. You can find the full details on the course page, and compare schools in our guide to medicine entry requirements.
Widening access: applicants flagged as “Plus” are assessed against Edinburgh’s minimum entry requirements – AAB at A level, 34 points with 655 at HL for the IB, or AAABB by the end of S5 with CC at Advanced Higher – with lower GCSE and National 5 grades too. Plus Flag applicants are considered with any UCAT total score and receive a 10% uplift to that score; “Flag” applicants must meet the cut-off and receive a 5% uplift; and Scottish-domiciled applicants living in SIMD40 areas must meet the cut-off and receive a 10% uplift. UCAT Bursary recipients get the same concessions as Plus Flag applicants, but no applicant is considered with a Band 4 SJT, and graduates only qualify if they are care-experienced or have refugee or asylum-seeker status. Edinburgh also supports the LEAPS and Reach Edinburgh outreach programmes for eligible state school pupils in south-east Scotland.
The selection process for Edinburgh Medical School includes an ‘assessment half-day’, which includes a series of short interviews. The day involves three ‘stations’, each scored independently by one selector, and the structure is based on a consultation with clinicians and teachers about the attributes they most want in their medical students.
The interview will assess you against the core values required for medical school, as outlined in the Medical School Council’s ‘Statement on the core values and attributes needed to study medicine’ and 'Outcomes for graduates'.
For 2027 entry, Assessment Days will ordinarily take place in person over a half day at Edinburgh Medical School, and applicants with a Scotland or RUK/Republic of Ireland fee rate are required to attend in person. Edinburgh says it is likely to continue running virtual Assessment Days for applicants domiciled outside the UK and Ireland. Your Assessment Day performance carries a lot of weight: it accounts for 50% of your final ranking score, and applicants who apply by the 15 October deadline and are invited should receive the outcome of their application by the following March. You can find the latest information on Edinburgh Medical School’s selection process page.
Most medical schools require you to pass an admissions exam before you’ll be invited for interview.
Admissions exam for Edinburgh: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
The UCAT is used to assess the skills, characteristics and professional behaviours 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. As part of their entry criteria, Edinburgh state that you must meet a minimum UCAT score and achieve a band 3 or higher in the SJT section (band 4 will not be accepted, whatever your other scores). For 2027 entry, the minimum UCAT total cut-off score is 1850, and only Plus Flag widening access applicants can be considered below it. If you meet the criteria, your score will be used to rank you against the other applicants: Edinburgh divides the cohort into deciles (ten equal groups) and allocates points for your decile and your SJT band, which are then added to your academic score to produce your final ranking for shortlisting. Exemptions from sitting the UCAT are granted only in very exceptional circumstances and must be agreed by 1 August in the year you apply.
Your final score after interview is weighted as follows:
| Part of the application | Weighting |
|---|---|
| Academic score (achieved and predicted grades) | 25% |
| UCAT total score (by decile) | 17.5% |
| Situational Judgement Test band | 7.5% |
| Assessment Day scores | 50% |
Source: Applying for Medicine booklet 2027.
Edinburgh publishes admissions statistics each October. The most recent figures cover 2025 entry, when 1,909 applications led to 839 Assessment Day invitations, 585 offers and 290 students placed:
| Fee status (2025 entry) | Applications | Invited to Assessment Day | Lowest UCAT score invited | Average UCAT score of those invited |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 678 | 508 | 2046 | 2793 |
| Rest of UK and Republic of Ireland | 545 | 233 | 2134 | 2987 |
| Overseas/International | 686 | 98 | 2690 | 3048 |
Source: MBChB admissions statistics.
These figures are from a cycle when the UCAT was scored out of 3600, on the previous five-subtest format, so they aren’t directly comparable with scores out of 2700. A good UCAT score will help you to secure an interview place and preparation is key to this.
To help you, there’s the free Medibuddy UCAT question bank, which uses artificial intelligence to carefully select practice questions based on your individual strengths and weaknesses in the syllabus. Rather than spend hours answering questions which you can easily do, you’ll be given questions in the areas which you need to develop, to help improve your UCAT score.
The question bank dashboard (below) also shows you how you’re performing in each of the subtests, with your calculated skill level, response time, and the total number of questions answered and correctly, for each section of the UCAT. This means you can quickly identify areas that you’ve “mastered” and those which you need to spend more time on. For example, for SJT (which Edinburgh requires a minimum band 3 in) you can easily see if you’re performing at the level which you need to.
Our Complete Guide provides more information on the UCAT and there’s also preparation advice 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 the MBChB in 2027/28 are:
International offer holders are usually asked to pay a deposit of a third of a year’s fees to reserve their place. You’ll also need your own stethoscope from the start of Year 2 (around £80), and Edinburgh estimates placement travel and accommodation at a maximum of £530 to £900 per academic year. Check the medicine fees page for the latest information.
Good luck with your application to Edinburgh! For more help, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK.
