Swansea University Medical School Interview

Swansea University Medical School is a small, research-led medical school on the Singleton Park campus, best known for its accelerated four-year Graduate Entry Medicine (GEM) programme, which the university describes as “unique in Wales” and open to graduates of any discipline. Swansea is ranked 9th out of 40 for Medicine in the Guardian University Guide 2027, with over 91% of students satisfied with their teaching and a maximum score for career prospects, and 12th in the Complete University Guide 2027 – up from 14th last year.

Note: Swansea offers the accelerated four-year Graduate Entry MB BCh (A101) to graduates of any discipline, and, new for 2027, a five-year MB BCh (A110) for A Level applicants from south and west Wales.

Teaching Overview

Swansea University Medical School adopts an integrated, spiral curriculum, using case-based lectures and skills sessions to support learning. On-campus teaching combines lectures and tutorials, case-based learning, Integrated Clinical Methods, and anatomy and clinical skills, with a student-centred and experiential approach throughout.

Throughout the course, you’ll gain the following clinical experience:

Years 1 & 2

• Clinical placements from your very first term, so you meet patients early.
• Learning in primary care and community settings, including the Medical School’s Primary Care Academy track, which is delivered across local communities with the support of the local university health boards.
• A year-long case study in your first year, following a patient or family over time.

Years 3 & 4

• Placements at NHS sites including hospitals, GP surgeries and community health facilities, so you see the social determinants of health first-hand.
• The option to follow the RRHIME (Rural and Remote Health in Medical Education) track, with immersion in rural general practice, district hospitals and rural secondary care in Aberystwyth and Haverfordwest.
• In Year 4 you’ll sit the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA), which you must pass – along with your finals – before you can register with the GMC.

Anatomy and clinical skills are taught in the Grove Building on Singleton Park campus, and you’ll also learn through SUSIM, Swansea University’s Simulation and Immersive Learning Centre, which runs scenario-based, interprofessional simulation across the healthcare programmes.

You’ll find more information about the course modules and clinical opportunities here.

Teaching Hospitals / Clinical Partnerships

Teaching is based on Singleton Park campus, with clinical placements across south and west Wales. Sites and facilities confirmed by the Medical School include:

• Grove Building, Singleton Park campus – anatomy, clinical skills and Medicine teaching
• Singleton Teaching Unit, Singleton Hospital, Swansea
• Education Centre at Morriston Hospital, Swansea
• GP surgeries and community health facilities across the region
• Rural general practice, district hospitals and rural secondary care in Aberystwyth and Haverfordwest (RRHIME track)

Swansea works closely with Swansea Bay and Hywel Dda university health boards – on the new A110 route, your paid year as a Healthcare Support Worker is arranged with one of these two health boards, within commuting distance of your home.

Extracurricular / Additional Opportunities

Welsh speaking students can study an optional ‘Doctor as Professional’ unit each year (Meddyg fel Gweithiwr Proffesiynol), with at least 40 credits per year available through the medium of Welsh. The unit may also mean you’ll be eligible for internal scholarships or financial support through Coleg Cymraeg.

For students who don’t speak Welsh, there’s a free ‘Welsh for Medicine’ course run by Academi Hywel Teifi, which will support you to develop basic Welsh language skills, particularly aimed towards working in healthcare settings. Fluent Welsh speakers can also request an interview through the medium of Welsh, be allocated a Welsh-speaking academic mentor and submit assessments in Welsh.

You’ll also undertake an elective clinical placement, which can be taken overseas – if you follow the RRHIME track, your third-year elective will be in a rural and remote area, typically abroad.

There are strong research and scholarship opportunities too, including Learning Opportunities in Research and Scholarship (LORS), audit and quality improvement projects, supported by a school whose staff are active researchers.

Away from the curriculum, the Medical School has a close-knit student community, with societies including MedSoc (the Graduate Entry Medicine Society), the Wilderness Medicine Society, Teddy Bear Hospital, GEM Pathway and the Welsh Medical Society, Cymdeithas Feddygol Gymraeg Prifysgol Abertawe.

Selling Points

As a small medical school with around 100 students per cohort entering each year, Swansea offers close contact with teaching staff, a strong sense of community and patient contact from your first term.

Other selling points you could mention at interview include:

• Excellent graduate outcomes, with Swansea scoring top marks for career prospects in the Guardian University Guide 2027 Medicine table.
• Dedicated placement tracks, with the RRHIME rural and remote track and the Primary Care Academy letting you shape your clinical experience around the kind of doctor you want to be.
• A genuine Welsh dimension, from Welsh-medium modules and clinical skills sessions to the Doctors for Wales strategy of training doctors for Welsh communities.
• Modern facilities, including the Grove Building anatomy and clinical skills suite, the SUSIM simulation centre and the Institute of Life Science.

Entry Requirements

The typical entry requirements for 2027 entry are:

• A Levels: not scored for Graduate Entry Medicine (A101). For the new five-year MB BCh (A110), AAA including Biology or Chemistry – predicted grades must be supported by AS results of AAA, and resits aren’t accepted.
• GCSEs: Mathematics at grade C/4 and English Language or Welsh Language at grade C/4 for both courses.
• International Baccalaureate: not scored for A101; 36 points overall including grade 6 in Biology or Chemistry at Higher Level for A110.
• Graduates: a 2:1 honours degree in any subject, or a merit in an integrated master’s, or a 2:2 honours degree plus a completed postgraduate higher degree (master’s or PhD).

Pending degree results must be confirmed by 31 July in the year of entry, and you must also complete an admissions test (see below). There’s no fixed upper age limit, Swansea doesn’t accept transfers from other medicine programmes, and deferred entry is only considered in exceptional circumstances. A101 is open to UK, EU and international applicants, while A110 is for home applicants who are ordinarily resident in, and have attended school in, Swansea, Neath Port Talbot, Carmarthenshire, Ceredigion or Pembrokeshire. Swansea doesn’t publish separate BTEC or Access to Medicine criteria, but accepts equivalent qualifications approved by the University – check the course page and compare schools using our guide to medicine entry requirements.

Widening access: Swansea’s Doctors for Wales strategy includes taster days and application workshops, an increased number of interviews, and eligibility for the remaining interview places being determined by domicile, secondary school attended and region of origin, with preference given to applicants from Wales. The Pathways to Medicine BSc degrees (including Applied Medical Sciences, Medical Biochemistry, Medical Genetics, Medical Pharmacology, Medical Sciences and Population Health, and Psychology) give you a guaranteed GEM interview in your final year if you achieve a 60% average in Year 1, 60% in the Pathways module, and hold or expect a valid UCAT or GAMSAT score. The new A110 route is itself designed to widen access for A Level students from south and west Wales.

Interview Information

Swansea University Medical School uses an ‘Assessment Day’ format for its interviews, which includes:

• 3 x 20/30 minute face-to-face stations in the form of interviews, presentations and role play scenarios.
• Questions on the content of your personal statement in one or more stations.

Stations are run by a trained panel of clinicians, academics, medical students and members of the public, and are designed around the qualities set out in the GMC’s ‘Good Medical Practice’ and ‘Outcomes for Graduates’:

• Communication skills
• Problem solving skills
• Coping with pressure
• Insight and integrity
• Passion for medicine / resilience to succeed
• Organisation and research
• Ethics and values

For 2027 entry, the highest-scoring applicants will be invited to an assessment day early in the New Year, held in person in Swansea. Your admissions test score isn’t considered again after shortlisting – any offer is based solely on your performance at interview. Swansea reserves the right to change the format of stations and the competencies assessed between cycles, so check your invitation carefully. Fluent Welsh speakers can ask to be interviewed through the medium of Welsh.

You can find more information about what is assessed and tips on how to succeed on their website here.

Top Tips for your Swansea Interview

• Prepare a presentation you can deliver confidently. One station may be a presentation, and Swansea uses it to judge your organisation and research skills, so practise structuring and timing it.
• Know your personal statement inside out. You can be questioned on anything you’ve written, so be ready to reflect on the experiences you described.
• Practise role play out loud. Role play scenarios test communication under pressure – rehearse breaking difficult news and handling a frustrated patient with a friend.
• Prepare an example for each competency. Map your experiences onto all seven qualities, especially ethics and values and coping with pressure.
• Show you understand healthcare in Wales. Swansea trains doctors for Welsh communities, so read up on rural and remote health, primary care and the Welsh language in healthcare.

Admissions Exam

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

Admissions exam for Swansea: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT), GAMSAT or MCAT

The UCAT is used to assess the mental abilities and professional behaviours needed to study medicine – it doesn’t test scientific knowledge. 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. Swansea accepts more than one admissions test, and the minimum scores it will consider are:

Source: Medicine (Graduate Entry), MB BCh – Swansea University.

These are minimums, not cut-offs: Swansea sets an annual cut-score for each test based on the number of applications received, and interview slots are allocated in proportion to how many applicants sat each test. Only scores from the year of application count for the UCAT, and if you sit more than one test only one score will be considered. Note that the old 2250 UCAT threshold quoted in previous cycles was on the previous 3,600-point, five-subtest format and isn’t directly comparable to today’s 2,700-point scale. Swansea’s admissions test table is currently labelled “for entry in 2026”, so check the course page for any changes before you apply.

To help you prepare effectively for all subtests of the UCAT, we’ve developed the free Medibuddy UCAT question bank, which uses artificial intelligence to identify your strengths and weaknesses within the syllabus, and carefully selects questions to meet your individual learning needs.

For more information and guidance, see our complete guide to the UCAT and our UCAT preparation tips.

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

Tuition Fees

Tuition fees published for Graduate Entry Medicine (A101) starting in September 2027 are:

• Home students: £9,790 per year
• International students: £48,350 in Year 1, increasing by 3% in each subsequent year of study

Home fees may increase in later years in line with the maximum regulated fee set by the Welsh Government. Fees for the new five-year MB BCh (A110) are currently published for September 2026 entry only, at £9,790 per year for home students, with no international fee status available. You can check the latest figures on the tuition fees page.

Key Dates for 2027 Entry

• 24 September 2026 – last UCAT test date
• 15 October 2026, 18:00 – UCAS application deadline (Swansea can’t accept late or direct applications, and you can’t sit an admissions test after this date)
• Early 2027 – assessment day interviews in Swansea
• 31 July 2027 – deadline for confirming any pending degree results used to support your application

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