Studying Medicine in the UK

This guest blog was written by Dr Elizabeth Adey – director of Uni Direct, a UK based company whot specialises in UK and European university applications.

Are you thinking about applying to study medicine at university in the UK for 2021 entry? The UK has some of the most highly regarded universities in the world, located in great cities like London, Edinburgh, Bristol and Bath.

To prepare for entry for medicine in the UK in 2021, applicants should start work now. Applying to university in the UK is usually done through UCAS, the UK undergraduate application system. UCAS has strict deadlines and applicants for medicine need to apply by mid-October the year before they start (October 15th 2020 for entry in September/October 2021). For those applying through UCAS for other degree courses, the deadline is January 15th 2021 for entry that year.

Applications to UK schools require you to prepare a well-thought through personal statement (letter of motivation) around one page in length. Students applying for medicine also have to sit additional admissions tests that they must sit in order to be considered for a place. You can either chose to sit the BMAT or UCAT admissions test and you need to select four universities to apply to through UCAS that all accept one of these tests. We are running a webinar in August and will talk a lot more about which test to select.

All UCAS applicants need a reference from a teacher and are required to provide administrative details as part of their application. Uni Direct is a registered UCAS centre based in the UK and helps students complete their UCAS forms to apply for medicine. Applications for courses like medicine also involve interviews of all prospective students. Interviews for international students usually take place online. Many MBBS courses carry out mini-assessment interviews. We recommend you attend in person if you are invited to interview.

Besides the results from your medical admissions test, there are two factors that can really help your chances of getting a place to study medicine. The first is having straight A grades at school. You need to have studied Chemistry, preferably alongside Biology, and then either Maths or Physics. The second factor we recommend is that you get some work experience. This can be very important for gaining admission to some universities. Ideally, we recommend working in a health care role. It doesn’t have to be anything particularly grandeur, just something that shows you are interested in pursuing a career in medicine. Some students chose to gain some work experience at a hospital and shadow a consultant. It all helps demonstrate your interest in studying medicine.

Deciding what degree course to study and where to study at, is a difficult process. Speaking to a counsellor can help you work out what options are available and where you are likely to meet the entrance criteria for. Good luck in your future university studies. Uni Direct, who are UK based, and The Study Centre, covering the Caribbean islands, are jointly running a webinar to help students understand more about the process of applying to study medicine in the UK. Uni Direct is a registered UCAS centre and can support you in making your application to study medicine. To sign up to join that webinar, please click here.