Our graduates are entitled to provisional registration with the General Medical Council, with a licence to practise, subject to demonstrating to the GMC that their fitness to practise is not impaired. 

A2 and AS levels – subjects and grades: Predicted A level grades should be AAA, including Chemistry and another science (Biology, Physics or Mathematics); If the second science is not Biology, then AS Biology at grade A is required. (NB Human Biology is acceptable as an alternative to Biology).

For combinations of Biology with any of Psychology, Physical Education or Sociology, or if the 3rd A Level is Music, Art, Drama or Media Studies, grade A must be offered in a 4th or (if necessary) a 5th AS subject.

Preference will be given to those applicants where good AS results are declared.

GCSE's: Candidates must have at least 7 A* grades in a good range of subjects. Preference will be given to candidates offering A* grades in English, Mathematics and Science subjects (a minimum of grade A is required in these subjects); Integrated Science (double certificate) is acceptable as an alternative to single sciences.

Cambridge Pre-University Diploma - At least D3 in three subjects, including Biology and Chemistry

Scottish Certificate of Education - Highers: Five subjects at grade A including, Chemistry, Biology, Maths and English.
Advanced Highers: Three subjects including Chemistry and Biology must be offered (grade requirements: AAB)

International Baccalaureate - Minimum of 36 points (excluding core points) must be attained, with at least 18 at HL. Higher level: Chemistry with Biology or Mathematics, and one other approved subject. Grade 6s are normally required. Subsidiary level: The subjects must include English, Biology and also Mathematics if not offered at the higher level. If relevant, you must provide results from the Middle Years' Programme.

Graduates - Achieved or predicted first or upper second class degree from a UK-based institution (normally). Very good results from school examinations (in appropriate subjects - see above) are required because you are in competition with school-leavers.

Life Science graduates may be eligible for our graduate-entry course|. Qualified dentists may also apply for our graduate-entry course. Those dentists who have completed MJDF may be admitted to the second year of this course if spaces are available.

Access Courses or Foundation Programmes - We do not consider either of these qualifications.

International (including EU) students

Applicants must have excellent written and spoken English. Please note that the university’s Standard English language requirements| are minimum standards, which may be raised through competition.

EU Nationals are considered as ‘home’ students for fee-paying purposes.

We have up to forty places available for overseas students. Normally, a student who is not an EU National is classified as overseas.

For overseas applicants, we wish to encourage aspiring doctors who are academically excellent and from countries with more limited medical training facilities to apply.

Because UK-based applicants are selected on the basis of results in each of two national qualifications (for example, A-levels and GCSEs), candidates from outside the UK must offer examination-based qualifications that are equivalent to these. Some examples are below:

Irish Leaving Certificate - Grade A in six subjects including Biology, Chemistry, English and Mathematics. The same standard applies in the Junior Certificate.

European Baccalaureate - Overall score of 85%, with a minimum of 85 % in the sciences, to include Chemistry and Biology as full options.

For guidance, the following broad-based qualifications are not acceptable on their own without, for example, A-levels. These include: French Baccalaureate, German Abitur; Greek (including Cypriot) Apolyterion; Italian Esame Di Stato; Lithuanian Brandos Atestats; Netherlands “Voorbereidend Wetenschappelijk Onderwijs" (VWO) Diploma; Polish Matura; Romanian Baccalaureate; Swedish Fullstandigt Slutbeytg (School Leaving Certificate).

More information about international entry requirements are provided here|. Please be aware that the academic qualifications described within these pages may NOT be acceptable for medicine entry. You must contact the Admissions Tutor by email to ask about qualifications not listed above. 

Additional information

Applicants should enter details of all their qualifications on the relevant section of the UCAS form. Incomplete applications may not be considered.

Mature Candidates - The School welcomes applications from mature candidates, but will take account of the length of undergraduate and postgraduate training which has to be undertaken. In addition, we expect that no more than four years has elapsed since the most significant and relevant qualification.

Second time A levels - Second-time applicants are considered only in exceptional circumstances. Only those who have achieved less than our standard offer by a small margin the first time round may be considered if there are persuasive mitigating circumstances.

Taking a year off - Approximately 10% of our students have taken a gap year and applying for deferred entry will in no way jeopardise your chance of an offer. If you intend to do this we recommend that the year is used to broaden your experience either by working, travelling, voluntary service or some other activity. We do not necessarily expect it to be in a field directly related to medicine.

Repeat medicine application - We will not consider anyone whose application to Birmingham medical school has been rejected previously following interview. Otherwise, we will consider those applying for medicine for a second time. This fact is often not apparent until interview but, even at this stage, an applicant must provide good evidence that their application is stronger.

Transfer applicants - We do not consider applicants who have studied or are studying medicine elsewhere.

Non-academic offer requirements

All accepted candidates will be required to complete a health declaration form, and some may be contacted by an Occupational Health Physician where appropriate.

The UK Government Health Authorities require that all medical students must be screened to ensure that they are not carriers of the hepatitis B virus. All applicants who accept an offer must:

• undertake a screening blood test for Hepatitis B.
• if negative, they must start a course of immunisation.
• thereafter provide certified evidence of these.

Prospective students are strongly advised to take the blood test in good time.

The UK Government Health Authorities recommend that all medical students should be offered screening for a number of blood-borne viruses (Hepatitis C and Human Immunodeficiency Virus as well as Hepatitis B). You should be advised that any health care worker who is infected with any of these viruses (or who cannot prove that they are not infected) is not able to undertake exposure prone procedures when qualified (which are defined as ‘those invasive procedures where there is a risk that injury to the worker may result in the exposure of the patient’s open tissues to the blood of the worker.’). The MBChB Course at Birmingham is a non-Exposure-Prone Procedure course, so students with Hep C and/or HIV will not reflect any risk to patients during the course. Therefore, students who are positive or decline the offer of a blood test will still be permitted to continue on the programme. Although, medical students may engage in exposure-prone procedures on a voluntary basis (for example, during their elective). If this is the case, students are required to be screened.

For further information about these requirements, please see: Medical and Dental Students: Health clearance for Hepatitis B, Hepatitis C, HIV and Tuberculosis.|

A satisfactory Criminal Records Bureau check is required from accepted candidates prior to registration for the programme. All students are required to sign the Fitness to Practise Code of Conduct prior to entry, details of which will be forwarded with an offer letter.

Medical students are expected to attend the entire course, which includes some evening and weekend work.

Opportunities for candidates with disabilities

We take a positive view of what candidates with disabilities can achieve as future medical professionals and take seriously our obligation to make reasonable adjustments to ensure that all students with disabilities can successfully complete their studies. All applicants will be assessed up to and including the interview on the basis of the criteria outlined above regardless of any disability. All students, including those with disabilities, have to be able to meet the competency thresholds set by the GMC. If you declare a disability we will invite you to work with us to explore how best we can support your studies.

You will experience the practice of healthcare in the community right from the start with a fortnightly attachment to a general practice, providing the opportunity for you to make links between your coursework and clinical practice.

The Birmingham course is modular and systems-based which gives you the essential knowledge and background to begin to work towards your own career goals.

First and second years

In your first semester you spend time preparing for the student-centered, participatory style of our course by learning how to access for yourself the considerable learning resources of the Medical School, including the extensive library and information technology-based material. 

Much of your first two years, though, is taken up with modules on the structure and function of the human body, covering the systems in detail. You learn how each system is controlled and able to respond to normal variation in the requirements placed upon it during everyday life, as well as how its function is affected by disease and medical treatments. Much of the anatomy is learned in small-group sessions including substantial experience of prosection.

You learn, too, about the psychology and sociology of health and illness and how the health of whole populations, as well as of individual patients, is assessed. You are introduced to some of the key issues in biomedical ethics – genetic engineering, for example. You spend ten days each year in the community with GPs and patients, linking biological and behavioural theoretical learning to patients. 

During problem-based learning sessions you will discuss and analyse clinical scenarios and learn to define and understand the physical, psychological and social components of medical problems. In each year of the course there are also student-selected components in which you can pursue topics that interest you. The longest of these is a two-month elective period at the end of Year 4 (see below). 

Third year

In your third year you further develop your basic clinical skills in examining patients and taking a good clinical history. The communication skills needed for effective patient–doctor relations are also studied. You learn about common diseases and how to diagnose and manage them, and you continue with theoretical work on pathology and pharmacology. 

Fourth and fifth years

The fourth and fifth years give you clinical attachments in modules in internal medicine and surgery, and attachments in medical sub-specialty modules such as cardiology, neurology, bone and joint disease and oncology. In these years you also do further modules in obstetrics and gynaecology, psychiatry, paediatrics and general practice.

View a video of one of our ex Undergraduate students talking about studying Medicine and living in Birmiingham. |

Module information

A diagram to illustrate the modular structure of each year of the medicine course can be viewed here.  Modules structure for MBChB programme  | 

Teaching and assessment

Throughout your five years you receive teaching in a variety of forms: lectures, seminars, tutorials, laboratory work, practicals, bedside demonstrations and clinical experience. There is a small component of PBL. We take care to adapt our teaching methods to the subject matter – offering, for example, role-play and video feedback on patient–doctor communication. Likewise, with assessment, we fit the method to the subject matter. As well as written examinations, you have coursework, projects, clinical examinations and oral assessments.  

Elective studies

Two months in the spring of the fourth year are allotted to full-time studies of your own choice. This period may be spent in a department of the Medical School or at another centre in Britain or abroad. You may choose to consolidate your knowledge in a subject already studied or to gain further experience of clinical practice or perhaps to undertake your own clinical research project. 

Click here| to see all the various locations that our fourth year students have visited as part of their electives.

Training in Research

As a doctor you will be expected to keep up-to-date with the latest developments in medicine. But, we need clinicians to take a lead role in bringing these about. On this medicine course you have the opportunity to learn research skills that you can use in your career to enhance and develop clinical practice. You can develop these skills in substantial depth during an intercalated degree. 

Intercalated programmes
If you attain a good standard in examinations, you may be admitted to a one-year programme leading to an Honours degree in Medical Science. This can happen after your second, third or fourth year of study in medicine. Three programmes are available involving either laboratory- or community-based research. You will learn to analyse and interpret medical research data and, importantly, undertake your own novel and substantial research project. The skills that you will acquire will allow you to contribute to the development of evidence-based clinical practice. You then return to complete the MBChB programme.  View information about the intercalating programmes.|

Pre-registration posts and postgraduate training

Our responsibilities for training medical students do not end with the award of MBChB degrees. All graduates must undertake a further two foundation years of structured training; at the end of the first of these, medical graduates become fully registered with the General Medical Council (GMC). (This applies to all medical schools in the UK.)  Acceptance into the Foundation programmes is conditional upon approval by the GMC who will investigate any fitness to practise issues.

Career opportunities

On completion of the foundation years, you can then apply for posts in your own chosen specialisation. For most of our graduates these are hospital and primary care posts in the NHS, but there are also opportunities in laboratory-based disciplines such as pathology, or in research. Some doctors move into more commercial fields such as the pharmaceutical industry, politics, or medical journalism and the media. Whichever direction you choose to go in, your training here gives you a first-class springboard.  

View a video of Helen Parry, MBChB Graduate and Core Medical Trainee Level 2|, talking about her time studying at the University of Birmingham and how the skills she gained helped her build a career in medicine.