Liverpool vs UCLan (Graduate Dentistry)

Liverpool's published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 1980, while UCLan (Graduate Dentistry) sits at approximately 2025.

Their UCAT bars are statistically indistinguishable (within 45 points), so the UCAT is unlikely to be your differentiator between them.

Liverpool requires AAA prediction and offer. Must include biology and chemistry, all 3 subjects taken in one sitting. Contextual: ABB offer. A-level resits not normally accepted.

UCLan (Graduate Dentistry) requires 2:1 in biomedical discipline. GCSE English and maths grade B. CCC at A-level including 2 from biology/physics/chemistry/maths.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Liverpool: AAA at A-Level including Chemistry and Biology. Top 9 GCSE subjects scored (similar to Liverpool medicine). UCLan (Graduate Dentistry): Not applicable - graduate-entry programme. Requires a 2:1 honours degree.

Both Liverpool and UCLan (Graduate Dentistry) use MMI interviews, so the underlying prep approach is the same — practise ethics frameworks, NHS hot-topic answers and (for MMI) structured station responses against a timer.

That said, the specifics differ slightly: Liverpool runs multiple mini interviews (mmi), online; UCLan (Graduate Dentistry) runs mmi for both uk and international applicants. Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep.

Interview windows: Liverpool interviews in December – February; UCLan (Graduate Dentistry) in Spring.

Liverpool runs a Integrated curriculum; UCLan (Graduate Dentistry) runs a PBL curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Liverpool delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while UCLan (Graduate Dentistry) centres learning around clinical cases.

Specifics: Five-year BDS. Clinical placements at Liverpool University Dental Hospital and Cheshire & Merseyside community sites. Four-year accelerated graduate-entry BDS. Preston-based with clinical placements across Lancashire NHS sites.

Intake size: Liverpool — ~75 home + ~15 international places per year for BDS Dentistry.; UCLan (Graduate Dentistry) — ~30-50 places per year (small graduate-entry cohort).. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Liverpool: Non-widening participation (2024): 89/402 = 22%. UCLan (Graduate Dentistry): 38/120 = 32% (2025).

Post-interview odds give you the clearest signal of how competitive each school is at the final stage — a school with a 60% post-interview success rate is structurally easier to convert than one at 25%, even if the interview thresholds look identical on paper.

Liverpool: No set UCAT cut-off - UCAT considered alongside non-academic information form (sent shortly after UCAS deadline, 2 weeks to complete). SJT band 4 is automatically rejected.

UCLan (Graduate Dentistry): Both UK and international applicants accepted - only one offer made each year to an international applicant. 2025: 353 applicants, 120 interviews, 38 offers (32%). Personal statements no longer used.