Cardiff University School of Medicine is the oldest medical school in Wales and one of the largest in the UK, teaching its C21 curriculum with “the whole of Wales as your classroom”. Cardiff is ranked 9th in the UK for Medicine in the Complete University Guide 2027 (up from 13th in 2026), and 17th out of 40 in the Guardian University Guide 2027, where it scores 99 out of 100 for career prospects.
Cardiff University School of Medicine offers a spiral curriculum, which is delivered within the following:
The curriculum also incorporates case-based learning (CBL) which focuses on the patient being at the centre of your learning and “integrate[s] science, social science and clinical practice”. In Years 1 and 2 this is now delivered mainly as case-centred Team Based Learning (cTBL), where you work through a patient case roughly every fortnight in small and medium-sized groups supported by trained facilitators.
The course, known as C21, is divided into three phases: Phase 1 (Years 1 and 2) covers core science and clinical practice; Phase 2 (Years 3 and 4) is built around extended clinical placements and projects; and Phase 3 (Year 5), the “Harmonisation” year, is spent largely working as part of a clinical team.
Whilst at Cardiff School of Medicine, you will undertake the following clinical placements:
Year 3 includes an Oncology Project, where you’re paired with a patient living with cancer and follow them through their investigations and treatment. Year 4 focuses on more specialist care, with blocks in Women, Children and Family; Clinical Neuroscience, Psychiatry and Ophthalmology; and Chronic Disease 2 (geriatrics, musculoskeletal disease and dermatology) – and you can apply to study the Women, Children and Family block at a partner European medical school.
Anatomy is taught in Cardiff’s Anatomy Centre on Cathays Campus, home to the Wales Centre for Anatomical Education – the only centre in Wales offering cadaveric dissection to undergraduates. Teaching is in small groups led by clinical anatomists and demonstrators, and combines dissection, prosection, body painting, e-learning and video tutorials.
You’ll sit the national Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) as part of your Year 4 ISCE and one of your Year 5 progress tests, and you must also pass the Prescribing Safety Assessment in your final year before you graduate.
More information about the course structure and the learning and assessment can be found here.
The School of Medicine is based at Heath Park Campus, on the site of the University Hospital of Wales – one of the biggest teaching hospitals in the UK – with teaching also delivered from University Hospital Llandough and the School of Biosciences at Cathays Campus.
Clinical placements are delivered by the health boards across Wales, in hospitals, community medical centres and over 230 general practices, so you could find yourself in a city teaching hospital, a small district general or a rural practice. Your Year 3 and 4 bookend weeks are led by Cardiff University at either Heath Park or Llandough, and there are support staff based at each district hospital in Wales while you’re on placement. Accommodation is provided for placements further away from south Wales.
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If you have an interest in scientific research, Cardiff University offers the optional opportunity to contribute to research being carried out, allowing you to work with researchers and develop your skills. The student-led Cardiff University Research Society (CUReS) runs taster days, a student symposium and information evenings, and helps students find summer research projects.
The opportunity to explore areas of medicine which are of interest to you is available during all years of the programme through student selected components (SSC). You choose the speciality, location and tutor, and work with that tutor to design the project. Within Year 5, you’ll also have the opportunity to undertake an elective of up to eight weeks, either at home or abroad, within an area of interest to you.
Through the elective programme and some choices within the SSC, you will have opportunities to study medicine in different locations across the world.
You can also apply to spend Year 3 on the Community Clinical Placement Year (CCPY), a year-long longitudinal integrated clerkship based in general practice, launching in Monmouthshire in September 2026. It builds on Cardiff’s CARER placement, which the GMC recognised as an example of good and innovative practice.
Around 100 students intercalate each year, taking an extra year after Year 3 or Year 4 to gain an iBSc or MSc. Options include Emergency, Pre-hospital and Immediate Care (EPIC), Psychology & Medicine, Biochemistry, Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacology, as well as master’s courses in areas such as clinical immunology and neuroscience – and you can apply to intercalate at another UK university. More information can be found here.
Outside of the curriculum, Cardiff University has a large medical society (MedSoc), offering a wide choice of medical sports teams, research opportunities, and charity and volunteering work to get involved in, among other things. There are dozens of medicine-related societies too, from Teddy Bear Hospital and the Surgical Society to the Wilderness and Expedition Medicine Society.
You will undertake clinical attachments across the whole of Wales, giving you experience in “everything from inner-city deprivation to farm-related illnesses” and allowing you to practice medicine in “holiday resorts, quiet country communities and post-industrial towns”.
As well as standard entry Medicine (MBBCh, A100), Cardiff University School of Medicine offers the following route:
More information about each of Cardiff University’s medical degrees is available here.
Other selling points you could mention at interview include:
The typical entry requirements for 2027 entry are:
You must be 18 years old by 20 September of Year 1, and all applicants must sit the UCAT in the year of application. Cardiff doesn’t accept BTECs, T Levels or A Level resits (other than in exceptional, evidenced circumstances), and the only Access course accepted is the Agored Cymru Access to Higher Education Diploma – Medicine. There are around 300 Year 1 places, with a 7.5% cap on overseas places (about 25). You can check the full details on the course page, and compare schools using our guide to medicine entry requirements.
Widening access: Cardiff gives additional consideration in scoring to contextual applicants, and – because Welsh students are under-represented in UK medical schools – recognises Welsh-domiciled applicants as one of its contextualised groups. A guaranteed interview (if you meet the minimum entry requirements) is offered to applicants on the Cardiff Step-Up to University programme, Sutton Trust attendees at a Cardiff summer school, students on the Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol Doctoriaid Yfory scheme and those taking the Agored Cymru Access diploma. The A101 feeder stream route is also part of Cardiff’s commitment to widening access to medicine.
Cardiff University School of Medicine uses the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format for its interview. These ‘short, carefully timed interview stations’ will focus on the ‘personal qualities and attributes that are important to your future career development’, and Cardiff won’t make an offer without interviewing you first.
As outlined on their website, the MMI will help to determine that you:
For 2027 entry, interviews will be held in person for home fee status applicants and online for overseas fee status applicants. Cardiff generally asks questions about the course in Cardiff, ethics, your understanding of a career in medicine, the NHS, working in teams, self-directed learning, motivation, empathy, resilience and communication. Interviews can also be taken in Welsh or bilingually – a set number of dates are reserved for this, and switching languages won’t affect your score.
Competition is stiff: Cardiff has received around 3,000 applications in each of the last two years, interviews around 1,000 applicants and made offers to around 600 following interview. Applications are reviewed after the October deadline, and Cardiff aims to have contacted all applicants by mid-December.
You can find more information about the interview process at Cardiff Medical School here.
Most medical schools require you to pass an admissions exam before you’ll be invited for interview.
Admissions exam for Cardiff: University Clinical Aptitude Test (UCAT)
The UCAT aims to assess the characteristics, attitudes and professional behaviours 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. You must sit it in the year of application – scores from previous years aren’t accepted.
There’s no minimum threshold for Cardiff Medical School; however, your UCAT score is used as part of the selection process. Once you meet the minimum entry requirements, Cardiff scores your eight best GCSEs (which must include Biology, Chemistry or double science, English Language and Mathematics) and combines that with points for your UCAT decile, as shown below:
| Element | 3 points | 2 points | 1 point |
|---|---|---|---|
| GCSE grade (eight subjects) | 9, 8 or A* | 7 or A | 6 or B |
| UCAT decile | 9th–7th deciles | 6th–4th deciles | 3rd–1st deciles |
An additional point is awarded for academic achievement in further or higher education, including acceptance onto Cardiff’s High Performance Programme. The highest scoring applicants are invited to interview, and a UCAT cut-off may be applied if too many applicants are sitting on excellent academic scores – Cardiff stresses that this cut-off isn’t predetermined, varies between applicant groups and can’t be predicted from previous years. Your personal statement is screened but not formally scored.
As a rough guide to the deciles, in 2025 the final UCAT mean was 1891, and the 7th, 4th and 1st decile boundaries were 2010, 1820 and 1580 respectively. Final 2026 figures will be published by the UCAT Consortium shortly after testing ends.
Source: Admissions information for studying Medicine at Cardiff and UCAT Test Statistics 2025.
The free Medibuddy UCAT question bank makes it easy to prepare well for the exam. Using our artificial intelligence algorithm, questions are selected for you individually, based on your strengths and weaknesses within the syllabus, so you can focus on the areas which you need to improve.
You can also easily see which sections of the syllabus you’ve “mastered” and which you need to work on more, using the question bank dashboard (below).
As you can see, you’re given your calculated skill level, response time, total number of questions answered and the number of questions answered correctly, for each section of the UCAT.
For more UCAT advice, see our complete guide and our preparing for the UCAT blog.
You can also see how other medical schools use the test in our guide to UCAT universities.
Tuition fees for students starting in 2026/27 are:
Cardiff is currently awaiting confirmation of its fees for the 2027/28 academic year, so check the course page and the tuition fees pages for the latest information. You’ll also need to budget for a DBS check, a stethoscope, Cardiff University branded scrubs and travel to some local placements.
Good luck with your application to Cardiff! For more help, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK.
