The University of Central Lancashire Medical School – now branded the University of Lancashire School of Medicine and Dentistry – is a Preston-based medical school with a large international cohort and a small number of UK places, known for early patient contact and placements across Lancashire and Cumbria. It’s ranked 40th out of 40 for Medicine in the Guardian University Guide 2027 and 39th in the Complete University Guide 2027, but the school scores well for student support, reporting that it was ranked 8th in the UK for academic support in the National Student Survey 2023, and its MBBS is recognised by the General Medical Council (GMC).
Note: places for UK students are very limited. The School’s placements information page states that UK places “are for students from the North West only”, and four places are reserved for scholarship students, so check your eligibility with the admissions team before you apply.
The University of Central Lancashire Medical School adopts a spiral curriculum, using a variety of teaching methods to support learning, including:
Three vertical themes run through the whole course – medicine in clinical practice (integrated science and clinical medicine), medical skills and quality care, and evidence informed practice of medicine – which come together in Year 5 as “Transition to Clinical Practice”. You’ll spend Years 1 and 2 largely on the Preston campus, before relocating for Years 3, 4 and 5 to either the Burnley campus (Victoria Mill) or the Westlakes campus in Whitehaven, Cumbria, home to the National Centre for Remote and Rural Medicine.
Throughout the programme, you’ll also undertake the following clinical placements:
Anatomy is taught without cadaveric dissection: the school’s human anatomy resource and learning centres contain anatomical models, virtual dissection tables and VR headsets, and the clinical skills laboratories use high-fidelity human simulators to recreate hospital, home and GP surgery environments. You’ll also meet patients early through the school’s volunteer patient group.
Both components of the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA) are built into the course, so you’ll graduate having completed them – the Applied Knowledge Test is sat at the end of Year 4 and the Clinical and Professional Skills Assessment at the end of Year 5.
You’ll find more information about the course structure, teaching and assessment here.
In Years 3 and 4 you’ll complete supervised clinical placements with the school’s clinical education partners, which include:
Gain access to a recording of our free webinar and find out what a day in the life of medical student Helen looks like. There's also videos covering all aspects of medical school applications and the UCAT.
"I would like to thank you for providing a useful and detailed webinar giving me a better understanding and an insight into what medicine has to offer."
Within each year of the course, you'll have the opportunity to develop your research skills through student selected components (SSCs).
At the beginning of year 5, you'll also have the opportunity to undertake an elective period, during which time you can explore a medical specialty of interest or sample medical practice in a different location.
After your fourth year, you’ll have the option to undertake an intercalated master’s degree, allowing you to take one year away from your medical training to complete a postgraduate degree, in addition to your MBBS qualification. Intercalation is open to both UK and international students, and options include the MRes Medical Sciences, MSc Mountain Medicine and MSc Medical Leadership. There are also 10 intercalation places fully funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), open only to the school’s own medical students, covering tuition at the UK rate, a living allowance and bench fees. More information can be found here.
You’ll also learn alongside students on other health courses, including physician associate students, in multi-professional teaching sessions in Years 1 and 2.
Central Lancashire Medical School offers Medicine with a Foundation Year (MBBS), a six-year route that begins with a preparatory year at the Westlakes Campus in Whitehaven before you progress on to the MBBS programme – note that this route is currently open to international students only. You can find out more about the course here.
Other selling points you could mention at interview include:
The typical entry requirements for 2027 entry are:
Scottish applicants need AAAAB from Highers, or AAA from Advanced Highers, to include Chemistry and a second science. BTEC Extended Diplomas, the Access to HE Diploma and UCAS Tariff points alone aren’t accepted, and all applicants need a satisfactory DBS/Disclosure Scotland check and occupational health clearance. If English isn’t your first language, you’ll need IELTS – the university’s course page lists 7.0 in all components, while the UCAS entry for 2027 lists 7.5 with no component below 7.0, so check with admissions. You can find the full details on the course page, and compare schools using our guide to medicine entry requirements.
Widening access: the university applies a weighting to UK applicants who meet its widening participation criteria, and its Fair Access Scheme – which applies to courses starting from September 2026 – can reduce a medicine offer by up to 8 UCAS points (AAB at A Level, or 34 points at IB). Eligibility includes having received free school meals, being a refugee or asylum-seeker, having experience of care, being estranged from your family or being a carer. Four MBBS scholarship places cover all tuition fees for the five-year course: the Mackenzie Scholarship for applicants from East Lancashire, the Dr Kate Granger Scholarship for applicants from Cumbria, and two Livesey Scholarships for students who complete the Scholars Programme – Livesey Medicine Pathway. You don’t apply separately – scholarships are awarded on ranking after interview, with preference given to widening participation applicants.
Central Lancashire Medical School uses the Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) format for its interview, and you won’t be made an offer without interviewing. The school’s applicant guidance explains that an MMI involves short, independent assessments at a series of stations, usually between six and ten of them.
Interviews are usually held in person at the Preston Campus between December and April, and you’ll also get a guided tour of the School facilities while you’re there. International applicants may be interviewed online or at other locations around the world. For 2027 entry, the university has confirmed that interviews for home applicants will be held from December 2026.
Once all interviews are complete, applicants who succeed at the MMI stations are ranked by their scores, and offers go to the highest-ranking applicants until all the places are filled – a small number of applicants who perform exceptionally well may receive an early offer. You’ll also be asked to submit a transferable skills form setting out your work experience, which is discussed at interview; clinical experience isn’t required, and your personal statement is used during the interview too.
You can find more information about the MMI process in Central Lancashire Medical School’s applicant guide.
Most UK medical schools require you to pass an admissions exam before you’ll be invited for interview.
Admissions exam for Central Lancashire: 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. All UK applicants must sit the UCAT, and the university states that your UCAT score “will be used as part of the selection process prior to interview” – in other words, it helps decide who is shortlisted, alongside your academic record, personal statement and reference. International applicants aren’t required to sit the UCAT.
The University of Lancashire doesn’t publish a UCAT cut-off score or SJT band rule, and no threshold statistics for the latest cycle are available on its website. Any thresholds will reflect the strength of the applicant pool in each cycle, so it’s important to achieve the best possible score you can.
The free Medibuddy adaptive 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.
The dashboard gives you 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 information on the entry exams used by other medical schools, visit our Medicine Entry Requirements blog.
You can also see how other medical schools use the test in our guide to UCAT universities.
The most recent published tuition fees for the MBBS are:
Fees for 2027/28 haven’t been confirmed yet, so check the course page for the latest information.
Good luck with your application to Central Lancashire! For more help, take a look at our guides to applying to medical school and the best medical schools in the UK.
