Newcastle University Medical School is a large regional medical school in the North East of England, with an integrated, case-led MB BS and clinical placements spread across the region. Newcastle is ranked 25th in the Complete University Guide 2027 and 28th out of 40 in the Guardian University Guide 2027 – mid-table positions, but almost 89% of students are satisfied with their teaching and the school scores 99 for career prospects, and with 342 places a year it’s one of the biggest medical schools in the country.
Newcastle University Medical School adopts an integrated curriculum, which includes early clinical experience to provide a clinical context, in addition to developing core knowledge. Within the first two years, you’ll undertake case-led learning, which further supports the integration of your learning, allowing you to make links with clinical practice through the use of clinical cases. Around 25 cases cover the normal and abnormal function of every major body system, and each one is taught through a mix of clinical skills tuition, hospital and GP visits, anatomy practicals, small group seminars, communication skills seminars and lectures.
During the final three years of the programme, you’ll be based within ‘clinical base units’ across the region. Newcastle's 'placement model' means that you'll spend time in 3 geographical areas – one close to campus, one commutable from campus, and one where you may need to live away from the campus – offering a 'wide geographical and demographically diverse' experience within rural and urban settings. You’ll be told your zonal allocation early in Year 1 so you can plan ahead. You can find out more about Newcastle's 'regional clinical placements' here.
During the programme, you’ll gain clinical experience through the following placements:
Anatomy is taught through practical sessions in Newcastle’s Anatomy and Clinical Skills Centres, which are based in Newcastle and throughout the region and include patient simulators, dissecting rooms and clinical skills laboratories. Clinical skills are taught in a recently refurbished, purpose-built Clinical Skills Laboratory, supported by the Dame Margaret Barbour Building a short walk from the Medical School. As at every UK medical school, you’ll also need to pass both parts of the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) before you can register with the GMC.
Newcastle is a regional medical school that works in partnership with NHS trusts throughout the North East and Cumbria, giving you access to a patient population of around 3.5 million. Hospitals and trusts in the Newcastle network include:
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Within Year 3 and Year 4, you’ll undertake two 4-week block student selected components (SSC), allowing you to explore topics of interest. You’ll also undertake an eight-week elective at the end of Year 4, in which you’ll gain experience within a different healthcare system, anywhere in the world. Past students have chosen topics such as wilderness medicine, global health, tropical diseases and paramedic and air ambulance attachments, and around 30% stay in the UK for their elective.
During your second year, you will also have the opportunity to study at the university’s branch campus in Malaysia for one semester.
Newcastle also offers an intercalated degree, where you take a year out of medicine to complete a Biomedical Science BSc or a master’s, often including your own research project. If you’d rather not add an extra year, you can still get involved in research through SSCs and the university’s summer research scholarship scheme – Newcastle is a Centre of Excellence in translational research, so teaching is research-led and there are opportunities to spend time in research labs.
Support outside the curriculum includes a peer-mentoring scheme that pairs every new student with a Year 2 student, and an academic mentor who stays with you throughout the programme.
As well as the standard five-year MBBS programme, Newcastle also offers an accelerated four-year course, available to graduates from any discipline and those suitably qualified with professional experience within the NHS. You can find more information about the programme here.
Other selling points you could mention at interview include:
The typical entry requirements for 2027 entry are:
You must have turned 18 by 10 January 2028, which effectively means turning 18 by the end of your first semester. Access to HE Diplomas are accepted from applicants who have been out of education for at least three years (Distinctions in all graded credit modules), but the BTEC Level 3 National Extended Diploma isn’t accepted. There are 342 places on the A100 and 25 on the A101, and international applicants are ranked for interview on UCAT score alone. You can check the full details on the course page, and compare schools using our guide to medicine entry requirements.
Widening access: contextual applicants are ranked in a separate stream from standard applicants and may have lower academic screen and offer thresholds, with a typical contextual offer of ABB. Newcastle also runs three supported entry routes: PARTNERS, its flagship access scheme, which gives eligible students a free residential summer school and an offer up to two A Level grades below the typical offer; Realising Opportunities, a national collaboration of research-intensive universities offering a dual offer up to two grades lower; and Pathways to Medicine, a Sutton Trust scheme for North East students that includes work experience, mentoring and a summer school, with an offer three grades below the typical offer.
Newcastle University Medical School normally uses the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format for its interview for “Home/EU applicants”, held on campus. This involves seven different 'stations', each lasting seven minutes, with an extra two-minute ice breaker question as part of the first station. You’ll meet a different selector at each station, and one station involves a role-play scenario. Applicants classed as International for fees purposes have a panel interview with two selectors instead, either online in their home country or on campus if they’d prefer to visit – the same categories are assessed in both formats.
These seven stations aim to assess you across the following categories:
For 2027 entry, Newcastle’s admissions policy confirms that interviews will generally take place between December 2026 and February 2027, with invitations sent by email – around 1,100 applicants were interviewed in recent cycles. Your selectors won’t see your personal statement or reference before or during the interview, and your UCAT Situational Judgement Test band is added to your interview score with the same weighting as one MMI station. Your final ranking for an offer is based 50:50 on your academic screen score and your interview score. You can find more information about the MMI on their website.
Most UK medical schools require you to complete an admissions exam as part of the entry criteria and before you’ll be invited to interview.
Admissions exam for Newcastle: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
The UCAT is designed to assess your skills, characteristics 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. Newcastle medical school uses your overall UCAT score and your SJT band to determine if you’ll be selected for interview. Candidates with an SJT Band 4 (the lowest band) aren’t considered at all. For home A100 applicants, your total UCAT score is converted into points out of 60 – 2400 and above scores the maximum 60 points, with the scale sliding down in 10-point steps to 1 point for 1810 and below – and these are added to your academic score out of 40 to give an “academic screen” score out of 100. Standard and contextual applicants are ranked in separate streams, while international and A101 applicants are ranked on their total UCAT score alone. Your SJT band then earns extra points at interview (Band 1 = 5 points, Band 2 = 3 points, Band 3 = 1 point).
Newcastle publishes the thresholds it applied in recent cycles:
| Year of entry | A100 core | A100 contextual | A101 | International |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 2820 | 2720 | 3030 | 2820 |
| 2022 | 2800 | 2719 | 3010 | 2870 |
| 2023 | 2820 | 2700 | 2930 | 2600 |
| 2024 | 2490 | 2490 | 2820 | 2910 |
| 2025 | Academic screen score of 50 out of 100 | Academic screen score of 50 out of 100 | 2740 | 2980 |
Source: UCAT Thresholds 2025.
These figures all come from cycles when the UCAT was scored out of 3600, so they’re on the previous format and aren’t directly comparable with today’s 900–2700 scale. Newcastle also reports that, for 2025 entry, interviewed core applicants had a mean academic screen score of 82 out of 100 (range 50–100) and interviewed widening participation applicants a mean of 70 (range 50–100). Therefore, you must perform well in the SJT section and achieve a competitive overall UCAT score, if you’re to be selected for an interview at Newcastle medical school.
To help you to prepare effectively, we’ve created a UCAT question bank which adapts to your learning needs. Using artificial intelligence to automatically assess your strengths and weaknesses, our algorithm ensures you’re given questions tailored to your individual needs, so you focus on developing the areas which will make a difference to your UCAT score.
You can also use the question bank dashboard to identify areas which you need to improve.
With your calculated skill level, response time and the number of questions you’ve answered correctly for each subtest, it’s easy to see what you’ve “mastered” and what you need to dedicate more time to if you’re to secure an interview for Newcastle medical school.
For more information and support with the UCAT, including the test dates and fees, and tips to help you prepare, visit our UCAT page.
You can also see how other medical schools use the test in our guide to UCAT universities.
Tuition fees for the five-year A100 in 2026/27 are:
Newcastle says that home undergraduate fees will rise to £10,050 for 2027/28, in line with the government’s fee cap. International fees for 2027 entry hadn’t been confirmed at the time of writing, so check the course page for the latest figures.
Good luck with your application to Newcastle! For more help, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK.
