Entry Requirements - Medicine and Surgery Graduate Entry (four-year)

Applicants must offer an Undergraduate Degree in a Life Science subject at a 2:1 classification or above. We will score the result (see 'Selection for Interview'). Applicants who have completed their degree will be at an advantage. The degrees we regard as generally suitable include: 

• Biochemistry/Medical Biochemistry 
• Molecular Biology
• Biomedical Science 
• Dentistry 
• Human Biology
• Physiology
• Pharmacology 
• Nursing (Adult, Child or Mental Health strands)
• Pharmacy 
• Physiotherapy
• Psychology (British Psychological Society accredited programme)
• Neuroscience
• Veterinary Medical Sciences (must be classified, otherwise distinction)
• Medical Physiology and Therapeutics
• Tropical Disease Biology
• Neuroscience
• Natural Sciences
• Microbiology
• Genetics

Many other degrees may be suitable, but variations between different degree programmes will require each programme to be looked at individually (i.e. syllabus assessed). These include: 

• Biological Sciences degrees with minority of content relating to vertebrate physiology
• Sports Science/Sports Studies

Please note that though we are flexible over our definition of a Life Science degree it must be recognised that we do not offer remedial teaching for those students with limited understanding of human biology. 

We want our students to start the course with a good knowledge of human biology, including cellular processes and systems organisation and functions. The amount and type of clinical training is also a factor that we take into consideration and clinical degrees must cover the breadth of healthcare practice. With all of this in mind, we do not accept degrees such as:

 

Degrees that are focused primarily on Chemistry are not accepted.

If you do not offer an acceptable first degree, we will consider either a second undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline or a taught Masters qualification in a biomedical science discipline (only). Either qualification must have been completed and a minimum result of 2:1 or Merit must have been achieved. We will score the result from the first undergraduate degree.

Applicants with higher degrees (MSc, PhD) do not normally receive advantage in the selection process (except, see 'Consideration of Skills Development' below) but are required to complete any postgraduate qualification successfully. If you are undertaking a higher degree, you are required to have completed all components of the assessment process (including receiving formal approval of corrections for a Masters or PhD thesis) before the end of August of the same application cycle

For non-UK degrees, we must have unequivocal evidence that your result places you at a level at least equivalent to the threshold degree requirement for a UK degree.

We expect that no more than five years will elapse between the most recent and relevant qualification and the start date of the course. We will waive this requirement for anyone whose:

• Full-time employment involves clinical work with substantive responsibility for patient management (we will not waive the requirement for a role as a Health Care Assistant, for example)
• Full-time work or study requires substantial links with the science basis of medicine (we will not waive the requirement for a role as a technician, for example).

See also general entry requirements.

We will score A Levels or equivalent school-leaving qualifications (see 'Selection for Interview') and we adjust the scoring for applicants who attended a contextual school (see ‘Consideration of Contextual Information’ below).

Where the highest qualification in English or Maths is at GCSE, grade A/7 is normally required. We will consider equivalencies.

We require 3 A Levels to have been attained in the last year of secondary school. We require these grades to be at least BBC for non-contextual applicants or CCC for contextual applicants. Biology or Chemistry is required normally. BTEC, Access qualifications and Foundation degrees are not considered.

Applicants must also have excellent written and spoken English. In line with the requirements for applicants from the UK, normally we expect grade A in English at GCSE (or equivalent). Please note that the university’s Standard English language requirements are minimum standards, which are likely to be raised through competition.

All applicants must sit the UCAT in their year of application. 

Please visit the UCAT website for information about the test, including important dates and information on available bursaries. We recommend that you undertake the practice tests available on their website. 

We will consider the total score from the four cognitive sub-tests in our process of selection for interview. We will use the Band score for the SJT component at the interview stage. We will rank the scores of our applicants, segregate them into deciles and allocate a score to each decile (see 'Selection for Interview'). We do not set a threshold score.

Access Arrangements:

• A number of amendments to the test format are available for candidates who require adjustments (for example, 25% extra time). For information on access arrangements, and details on how to supply evidence to support your request for an adjustment, please visit the UCAT - Access Arrangements website
• For applicants whose evidence to support an adjustment is approved, we will not be informed of this by UCAT (for example, we will not know that you have taken the UCATSEN)
• There are some adjustments that cannot be accommodated by UCAT (for example, readers or scribes). If UCAT informs you they cannot meet your needs you must contact us to explain your request and the reasons for making it. We will advise you if we will accept an application without a UCAT result. Please note that you must inform us well in advance of the UCAS application deadline for medicine as we will not extend it for any reason

We wish to recognise the development of relevant skills through employment and/or postgraduate study or training.

Time in employment or postgraduate activity is not an entry requirement, but these activities will be scored when we select applicants for interview, see 'Selection for Interview'. We will consider a wide variety of experience (relevant to medicine or not) and therefore we will not attempt to quantify its significance. Hence, work in a restaurant will receive the same recognition as PhD study, for example. Therefore, we advise that you record your study and employment dates accurately on your UCAS application. We will not contact applicants for whom any information is unclear. If you do have an employment history recorded on your UCAS application, we will only score completed periods of full-time activity lasting at least 6 months. 

The time period we count is from the date of graduation of the first Bachelors degree to the date of submitting your UCAS application.

If you undertake a second qualification at the same academic level as the first, we will not count the time spent in that period of study.

We will not count the final year of a 4-year integrated Masters qualification.

Activity that takes place prior to or during a first degree will not be considered.

If your full-time activity was curtailed by the impact of COVID-19, we will consider your application as if it had continued. 

We will adjust our A Level scoring mechanism for applicants who attend a contextual school for A Levels because we recognise that the educational setting can influence achievement (see 'Selection for Interview').

Applicants who attended a state (not independent) school that meets our threshold for A Level will be included in this category.

A Level Contextual Threshold

• Contextual measure: QCA points per A level subject
• Score for inclusion: <34.65 points

View the list of schools that meet our contextual criteria. If you studied at one of these schools you will be included automatically in our contextual category if you apply.

Care Leavers

We will adjust our scoring mechanism for Care Leavers.

Experience of public care is defined as previously being looked after by a local authority, foster parents/other family members, at home with their parents under the supervision of social services, in a residential children’s home or in another residential setting such as school or secure unit, or someone who has experienced a period of three months in the care of the local authority between the ages of 8 and 18.

For all applicants who meet this definition:

• We will apply the contextual A Level scores irrespective of the school attended (see 'Selection for Interview')
• We will adjust the score we allocate to the degree result as follows:
  • 2:1 or 1st: 8 points
  • 2:2: 4 points
  • Predicted 2:1: 2 points

• We will consider only very serious life events, such as, a protracted illness that has required substantive support from health professionals
• We will make no attempt to quantify the impact of the circumstances on academic results
• We will expect that the relevant examination boards have taken the circumstances into consideration and there will be only isolated examples where they need to be further considered
• If the examination board has permitted an extra year of study then we will accept this (with appropriate evidence)
• You are advised strongly to discuss your circumstances with the medicine admissions team in good time and you should not apply until a decision has been made. We will not consider evidence submitted after the UCAS deadline
• You must normally offer evidence of high academic achievement in a more recent and higher qualification other than the one affected by extenuating circumstances

Repeat medicine application: 

We will consider you if you applied to Birmingham Medical School and were rejected following interview but only if 3 years have elapsed since the previous application. At this time you will not be at a disadvantage.

We will consider you at any time following the previous application if you were rejected without interview.

Re-sit grades: 

Re-sit grades are not considered, except in extenuating circumstances (see above).

Transfer from another degree programme

We do not consider applicants who are studying on any course that concludes after August 31st of the relevant UCAS application cycle.

Previous Medicine study

We do not consider applicants who have previously studied medicine in the UK or elsewhere, whether the course was completed or not.

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.

This full 4-year course is open to home/EU students only. 

Applicants must have excellent written and spoken English. In line with the requirements for applicants from the UK, normally we expect grade A in English at GCSE (or equivalent). Please note that the university’s Standard English language requirements are minimum standards, which are likely to be raised through competition.

Depending on your chosen course of study, you may also be interested in one of our foundation pathways, which offer specially structured programmes for international students whose qualifications are not accepted for direct entry to UK universities. Further details can be found on Birmingham International Academy web pages.

We offer approximately five places on a three-year training course for qualified Dentists who wish to pursue a career in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. 

The following principles apply to selection for interview.

• You must apply for Year 2 entry on the Graduate-entry course (A101), which must be indicated on the UCAS application.
• We do not use UCAT or any other aptitude test
• We would expect normally that you must have achieved MJDF or MFDS, though we recognise that COVID-19 has had an impact on the examinations for these qualifications. Our expectation is that you will gain either MJDF or MFDS by 31st July 2021 
• You must offer substantial evidence of clinical practice in the UK post-graduation. The impact of COVD-19 is expected to be a small proportion of your time as a registered dentist
• It is necessary for you to demonstrate commitment to and understanding of a career in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, including evidence of academic engagement with the speciality (audits and/or publications)
• International applicants can be considered
• The number of places on this programme will depend on the availability of clinical placements

To find out information from previous application cycles, please download our application statistics document.