University of Leeds Medical School Interview

The University of Leeds School of Medicine is a large Russell Group medical school where clinical placements start in your very first year, across hospitals, GP surgeries and community settings throughout West Yorkshire. Leeds is ranked 22nd out of 40 for Medicine in the Guardian University Guide 2027, with a perfect score of 100 for career prospects and around 89% of students satisfied with their teaching, and 26th in the Complete University Guide 2027.

Teaching Overview

To support learning, Leeds Medical School adopts a range of teaching methods, including:

• Early clinical experience – placements from the start of Year 1, to begin developing consultation and practical skills
• Case-based learning – to support you to integrate your knowledge with ‘real patients’
• Self-directed and group learning – to develop independent learning and research skills
• Inter-professional learning – to develop leadership and teamwork skills with other professional groups
• Ultrasound and simulation – hands-on teaching in the Skills and Simulation Suite, with one-to-one supervision from NHS-trained experts.

Hint: Leeds says it was the first medical school in the UK to integrate ultrasound teaching and clinical skills across all five years of its MBChB, so this could be an interesting discussion point if you’re asking about the medical school during your interview.

In each year you’ll study four modules: Fundamentals of Medicine (core science, anatomy, research and the wider forces that shape health), Clinical Practice, Professional Practice and Student Choice. There are no optional modules, and you’ll need to make satisfactory progress in all four to move up a year. Assessment is through single best answer papers, OSCEs, written assignments and presentations, plus an electronic portfolio of clinical assessments, and you’ll sit the national Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) in your final year. Note that Leeds has said the MBChB is currently under curricular review, which will bring some changes to the course structure and assessments.

Throughout the programme, you’ll undertake the following clinical placements:

• Year 1 & 2: Early placements in general practice and secondary care – while on GP placement you’ll also work with local voluntary groups, and in recent years students have worked with over 250 community organisations
• Year 3: Junior clinical placements – five clinical placements, each five weeks, covering integrated medicine, surgery and peri-operative care, elderly and rehabilitation care, primary care and special senses
• Year 4: Specialty placements – five clinical placements, each six weeks, in areas such as psychiatry, paediatrics and child health, obstetrics and gynaecology, emergency and critical care, and cancer and continuing care
• Year 5: A mandatory series of clinical placements with a strong focus on the transition to early postgraduate practice, plus your elective.

You can find more information about the course structure and content here.

Teaching Hospitals / Clinical Partnerships

Leeds places students across four NHS hospital trusts, as well as GP surgeries, hospices, community, voluntary and private organisations, so you’ll see healthcare delivered in urban, suburban and rural settings and across a broad socio-demographic mix.

• Leeds – Leeds General Infirmary, St James’s University Hospital and Chapel Allerton Hospital (Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust)
• Bradford
• Airedale
• Harrogate
• Dewsbury and Pinderfields (Mid Yorkshire)

The School has produced virtual tours of over 30 clinical placements at these NHS sites so you can see where you’ll be working before you arrive – you can read more on the facilities page. On campus, teaching is based in the Medical Teaching Centre and the Skills and Simulation Suite, and you’ll also learn alongside volunteers through Leeds’ Patient, Carer Community (PCC) from Year 1.

Extracurricular / Additional Opportunities

The programme offers a Student Choice module in every year – the Leeds version of student selected components – giving you dedicated time to explore topics that interest you. In Year 4 this becomes a dissertation project, where you apply scientific and research methods to an area of medicine or medical science of your choosing.

Year 5 begins with a six-week elective, which provides the opportunity to explore an area/speciality of interest and gain wider clinical experience. You can stay in the UK or travel – past students have worked in health centres, charities, universities and hospitals in Australia, China, Italy, Nepal, Samoa, Tanzania and Vanuatu.

Leeds Medical School also offers a ‘Students without Borders’ programme, allowing medical students to study languages which will enable them to work in French or Spanish-speaking countries.

You will also have the option to undertake an intercalated degree as part of the programme offered by Leeds Medical School. This allows you to take one year out of your medical degree to study and gain an additional degree, after Year 2, 3 or 4. For more information about the intercalated degree offered by Leeds Medical School, including subject options, visit here.

Away from the curriculum, MedSoc runs the social side of medical school life and the Medical School Representative Council (MSRC) represents students to the School and organises practice OSCEs, alongside around 30 further societies set up by medics, for medics – from surgery to wilderness medicine. You can see the full list on the clubs and societies page.

Selling Points

Leeds Medical School offers a Gateway Year to Medicine MBChB. The Gateway Year provides scientific background and develops your skills, allowing you to progress onto the MBChB five-year course following successful completion. You can find more information about the programme here.

Other selling points you could mention at interview include:

• Ultrasound across all five years, taught in a simulation suite with advanced ultrasound equipment and one-to-one clinical supervision.
• Placements from day one across four NHS trusts, GP practices, hospices and the voluntary sector, giving you a very broad picture of how care is delivered.
• A research-intensive environment, with over 90% of Leeds’ research rated world-leading or internationally excellent in REF 2021 and a dedicated dissertation project in Year 4.
• A recognised approach to teaching and assessment, with the School holding six ASPIRE-to-Excellence Awards for assessment, student engagement and social responsibility.

Entry Requirements

The typical entry requirements for 2027 entry are:

• A Levels: AAA, including Chemistry and Biology. Leeds doesn’t rate A* above A, so A*A*B won’t be accepted in place of AAA, and a fourth A Level gives you no advantage.
• GCSEs: a minimum of 6 GCSEs at grade 6 or above, including Maths, English Language, Biology and Chemistry (or Dual Science). Shortlisting scores your top 8 GCSEs, so applicants at the minimum are unlikely to be invited to interview.
• International Baccalaureate: 36 points overall with 6, 6, 6 at Higher Level, including Chemistry and Biology.
• Graduates: a 2:1 honours degree awarded within the last three years, plus A Levels at ABB including Chemistry and Biology (one at grade A) and six GCSEs at grade 5 or above.

Leeds also accepts the Access to HE Diploma (Medicine) where all graded Level 3 units are at distinction, but does not accept T Levels, and does not accept Access diplomas taught by distance learning. From 2026 entry onwards, one resit attempt per A Level and per GCSE is accepted without mitigating circumstances. You’ll need to show evidence of full-time education within the last five years, pass an enhanced DBS check and occupational health clearance, and meet an English requirement of IELTS 7.5. Applications close on 15 October and Leeds does not consider late applications or take part in UCAS Extra. Full details are on the course page, and you can compare schools in our guide to medicine entry requirements.

Widening access: Leeds runs the Access to Leeds contextual admissions scheme, which you can apply to if you’re a UK student meeting two of six criteria – household income of £25,000 or below (or free school meals), first generation at university, a school achieving below the national average at GCSE, disrupted studies, a low participation postcode, or being care experienced. The typical Access to Leeds offer for Medicine is ABB (IB 34), and you need to submit your A2L application at the same time as your UCAS form. If you meet the widening participation criteria but aren’t predicted ABB with an A in Chemistry or Biology, or you aren’t taking both subjects, the Gateway Year to Medicine (A101, typical offer BBC, UK applicants only) is the route for you – but you can’t apply for both A100 and A101 in the same cycle. Leeds also offers a full UCAT bursary and a travel bursary of up to £100 for interview to eligible widening participation applicants.

Interview Information

Leeds Medical School uses the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format for its interview, which is used to further assess your non-academic qualities.

For 2027 entry, face-to-face interviews for the MBChB will take place on 4, 5 and 6 January 2027 on campus, with overseas applicants interviewed online. Leeds doesn’t publish the exact number or length of stations, although applicants in recent cycles have typically described around eight short stations on a circuit.

It’s worth knowing that the decision to make an offer after interview depends entirely on your performance on the day – not on your predicted or achieved grades, or your UCAT score. Leeds also usually runs a waitlist for applicants who narrowly miss out at interview stage, contacting them after the UCAS decision deadline in June.

You can find more information about Leeds Medical School’s MMI here.

Top Tips for your Leeds Interview

• Plan your journey carefully. Interviews are in person in early January, so book travel and, if you need it, accommodation early – and check whether you’re eligible for the £100 widening participation travel bursary.
• Treat every station as a fresh start. On an MMI circuit each station is marked independently, so a shaky answer at one station won’t follow you to the next.
• Make your reflections count. Leeds doesn’t require clinical work experience, but it does want to see what you’ve learnt from the experiences you have had, so prepare concise, reflective examples.
• Know the Leeds course. Read up on early placements, ultrasound teaching, the Patient, Carer Community and the Student Choice modules so you can explain why Leeds specifically.
• Remember the offer rests on the interview. Your grades and UCAT get you through the door, but nothing else counts on the day – so practise timed MMI circuits until the format feels routine.

Admissions Exam

Most medical schools require you to pass an admissions exam before you’ll be invited for interview.

Admissions exam for Leeds: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)

The UCAT aims to assess the skills, characteristics and professional behaviours required for medical school. The exam is divided into 4 sections: 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 your year of application, and Leeds doesn’t accept any alternative admissions test.

Leeds doesn’t use the UCAT as a simple threshold. Instead, your academic criteria – achieved and predicted grades, with scoring based on your top 8 GCSEs – are combined with your UCAT score to form a total score, and applicants are ranked on that total for interview shortlisting. Leeds states that a high academic score can compensate for a lower UCAT score, and vice versa, and that there is no pre-determined cut-off score. Widening participation applicants are considered separately, so the score accepted may be slightly different. Personal statements aren’t formally part of shortlisting, and clinical work experience isn’t required – but both matter for interview preparation. Leeds publishes a guide to the lowest scores shortlisted for 2024 and 2025 entry on its Understanding UCAT page; bear in mind those cycles were scored out of 3600 on the previous five-subtest format, so they aren’t directly comparable with today’s scores out of 2700.

To give you a sense of the competition, Leeds released the following figures for 2024 entry:

Source: University of Leeds FOI response FOI1507. The Medical Schools Council lists Leeds at 7.1 home applicants per place, and 2.5 home applicants per interview.

Our adaptive UCAT question bank will help you to prepare effectively. Using artificial intelligence, our algorithm assesses your individual learning needs and provides questions based on the areas of the syllabus which you need to develop. This means you’ll be focusing on the areas which will improve your UCAT score and not wasting time answering questions which will not have a positive impact on your UCAT performance.

Using the question bank dashboard, you can also easily identify areas which you’ve “mastered” and those which you need to dedicate more time to.

For more advice on preparing well for the UCAT, check out our step-by-step guide and quick tips, on our UCAT page.

You can also see how other medical schools use the test in our guide to UCAT universities.

Tuition Fees

Tuition fees for students starting in 2027/28 are:

• Home students: £10,050 per year, the level confirmed by the UK government
• International students: to be confirmed – once set, the international fee applies to each year of full-time study and stays the same for the duration of your course

You should also budget for course costs including the UCAT (£70, with a full widening participation bursary available), criminal record checks (£53 for home students), a lab coat (£25), a stethoscope (£170, free to eligible students through the Stethoscopes for Students scheme) and placement travel. Check the fees section of the course page for the latest information.

Key Dates for 2027 Entry

• 24 September 2026 – last UCAT test date
• 15 October 2026, 18:00 – UCAS application deadline (Leeds does not accept late applications for Medicine, and doesn’t take part in UCAS Extra)
• 4, 5 and 6 January 2027 – face-to-face MMIs on campus, with overseas applicants interviewed online
• June 2027 – waitlist invitations are issued after the UCAS decision deadline

Good luck with your application to Leeds! For more help, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK.