Where are Buckingham and Oxford located, and how does that affect cost?

Buckingham is in Buckingham, UK. Oxford is in Oxford, UK. Tuition is £9,250/year at both for UK home applicants; the main cost difference is accommodation (London accommodation typically runs 30-50% above the national average).

When does each school release decisions?

Buckingham typically releases medicine decisions March onwards. Oxford releases medicine decisions January. If one is earlier than the other, you may need to hold a decision while waiting for the second school — be ready to compare in real time.

Medical school comparison

Buckingham vs Oxford

Buckingham and Oxford are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Both sit in England, so location and clinical-placement breadth are similar — the differentiation comes from selection methodology, interview style and curriculum philosophy. Their A-Level requirements (ABB vs A*AA) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers.

The interview formats diverge — MMI vs Panel — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different. Oxford is the older institution (founded 1096); the other (founded 1976) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: Buckingham and Oxford.
Comparison field	BuckinghamBuckingham	OxfordOxford
Quick comparison
Location	Buckingham, UK	Oxford, UK
A-Level offer	Minimum ABB at A-level including Chemistry OR Biology - both are not required.	AAA at A-level (and AAA predictions) including Chemistry plus one of Biology, Mathematics, Further Mathematics or Physics
TrueScore	-	Oxford TrueScore 2230
UCAT home cut-off	-	No published cut-off. For 2026 entry the mean UCAT was 2,217.5 across all applicants, 2,377.5 among those shortlisted and 2,407.1 among offer-holders.
Interview format	Three-stage selection: academic screening, digital Multiple Mini Assessment (MMA), then an MMI/OSSE task circuit	Traditional or Panel Interviews
Post-interview chance	Refused to state	Strong. Of ~425 shortlisted for 2026 entry, 175 received offers - roughly 42% of home-fee interviewees (about 167 offers from ~393 interviews) and 8 of the 32 international interviewees (25%).
Decision date	March onwards	January

A-Level offer	Minimum ABB at A-level including Chemistry OR Biology - both are not required.	AAA at A-level (and AAA predictions) including Chemistry plus one of Biology, Mathematics, Further Mathematics or Physics
Contextual A-Level offer	-	-
Required A-Level subjects	Chemistry or Biology (one of the two, not both)	Chemistry plus one of Biology / Mathematics / Further Mathematics / Physics. Combinations like Chemistry + Biology + Psychology are acceptable - Maths/Physics is not a barrier. Students can in theory be selected without Biology (interview prep would be more challenging).
A-Level resit policy	Resits considered.	Resits accepted with extenuating circumstances - must resit all 3 subjects in the same sitting
GCSE requirements	At least grade 4 in GCSE English and at least grade 4 in GCSE Mathematics (or equivalent).	No minimum is published. 2026 entry means: 10.1 grade A*/9/8 (96% of grades) for shortlisted applicants and 10.3 (97%) for offer-holders, against 8.9 (86%) across all applicants. Contextualised to school performance.
GCSE scoring methodology	-	Oxford scores the number of A/9/8 grades and the mean proportion of grades at A/9/8, contextualised against school-level performance data; grades 8 and 9 are treated alike. The relative weighting of…
Scottish Highers	-	-
Scottish Advanced Highers	-	-
International Baccalaureate	Total score of at least 32 points including three Higher Level subjects, with at least HL6 in Chemistry or Biology and at least HL5 in the other.	39 points overall, 7,6,6 at Higher Level including HL Chemistry plus one of Biology / Mathematics / Physics
Graduate-entry degree requirement	-	Two routes. Graduates may apply to the standard six-year A100, and Oxford also runs A101, a four-year accelerated Graduate-Entry course of roughly 30 places, open to applicants with a 2:1 or above (or GPA above 3.5) in an applied or experimental science. A101 needs A-levels of at least AAB with an A/A* in Chemistry - waived for Chemistry or Biochemistry graduates - plus one of Biology, Physics or Mathematics; the A-level grade rule relaxes if exams were sat more than five years ago. IB route: 36 points with 6s at Higher Level.
Alternative qualifications	-	4 A-levels and/or EPQ are not beneficial in the shortlisting algorithm. Three A-levels is sufficient.

Contextual cut-off	-	-
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	-	Mean 2,537.2 among the 32 international-fee applicants shortlisted for 2026 entry, of whom 8 received offers.
Graduate cut-off	-	-
SJT band	UCAT not used - uses MMA computer-based test instead	Not used for shortlisting. Theoretically post-interview alongside other factors. Bands 1, 2, 3 no cause for concern; band 4 also selected last year.
UCAT notes	UCAT not used. Selection is by Buckingham's own computer-based MMA (Multiple Mini Assessment). Private university, applied to directly outside UCAS.	Shortlisting combines UCAT with a contextualised GCSE score. Around 425 applicants are interviewed each year (~2.5 per place): the bulk are ranked in automatically, and the Shortlisting Committee adde…

Degree awarded	MB ChB	BM BCh
Course length	4.5 years	6 years (3 pre-clinical + 3 clinical)
Teaching style	Integrated	Traditional / lecture-led
Anatomy teaching	-	Prosection
First patient contact	-	-
Placement geography	Buckinghamshire, Northamptonshire, Warwickshire and Cheshire	Oxford
Named placement sites	Milton Keynes University Hospital, St Andrew's Hospital, Northampton, South Warwickshire NHS Foundation Trust, Stoke Mandeville Hospital, Macclesfield General Hospital (East Cheshire Trust), Leighton Hospital (Mid Cheshire Hospitals)	John Radcliffe Hospital
Intercalation	-	Built in — the BA in Medical Sciences is taken as year 3 by every student on the standard course.
Course highlight	Buckingham is an independent, privately funded university — tuition is £41,500 a year for UK students and £47,000 for international students.	-

Interview window	December - March	December
Interview details	Buckingham selects in three stages for January 2027 entry: academic screening, a digital Multiple Mini Assessment (MMA), then an MMI/OSSE — a series of tasks assessing Good Medical Practice attributes…	Two college-based panel interviews held in December, each typically 20-30 minutes. Tutors push you on scientific reasoning rather than rehearsed answers - expect questions that build on what you say a…

Specialities	Medicine, Accelerated Medicine	Clinical Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Medical Research
Established	1976	1096
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	UCAT is not used - Buckingham selects with its own computer-based MMA (Multiple Mini Assessment). Private university: fees rise to £41,500/year for UK and £47,000/year for international applicants (£1…	Pooling system means each applicant is assessed at two colleges, with a centralised shortlist - applying to a "less competitive" college gives no real advantage. GCSE performance is contextualised to…
Official course page	https://www.buckingham.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/mb-chb-medicine-4.5-year-degree/	https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/course-listing/medicine

Buckingham

Quick comparison

Location: Buckingham, UK
A-Level offer: Minimum ABB at A-level including Chemistry OR Biology - both are not required.
TrueScore: -
UCAT home cut-off: -
Interview format: Three-stage selection: academic screening, digital Multiple Mini Assessment (MMA), then an MMI/OSSE task circuit
Post-interview chance: Refused to state
Decision date: March onwards

Oxford

Quick comparison

Location: Oxford, UK
A-Level offer: A*AA at A-level (and A*AA predictions) including Chemistry plus one of Biology, Mathematics, Further Mathematics or Physics
TrueScore: Oxford TrueScore 2230
UCAT home cut-off: No published cut-off. For 2026 entry the mean UCAT was 2,217.5 across all applicants, 2,377.5 among those shortlisted and 2,407.1 among offer-holders.
Interview format: Traditional or Panel Interviews
Post-interview chance: Strong. Of ~425 shortlisted for 2026 entry, 175 received offers - roughly 42% of home-fee interviewees (about 167 offers from ~393 interviews) and 8 of the 32 international interviewees (25%).
Decision date: January

Buckingham vs Oxford - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Buckingham requires Minimum ABB at A-level including Chemistry OR Biology - both are not required.

Oxford requires A*AA at A-level (and A*AA predictions) including Chemistry plus one of Biology, Mathematics, Further Mathematics or Physics.

Oxford is the stricter A-Level offer; Buckingham is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, Buckingham carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Buckingham: At least grade 4 in GCSE English and at least grade 4 in GCSE Mathematics (or equivalent). Oxford: No minimum is published. 2026 entry means: 10.1 grade A*/9/8 (96% of grades) for shortlisted applicants and 10.3 (97%) for offer-holders, against 8.9 (86%) across all applicants. Contextualised to…

Interview formats

Buckingham uses MMI (Three-stage selection: academic screening, digital Multiple Mini Assessment (MMA), then an MMI/OSSE task circuit); Oxford uses Panel (Traditional or Panel Interviews). These two formats reward different skills — MMI emphasises breadth, station-recovery and structured answers under time pressure, while Panel rewards depth and consistency.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, Oxford may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, Buckingham is the better fit.

Interview windows: Buckingham interviews in December - March; Oxford in December.

Curriculum and teaching style

Buckingham runs a Integrated curriculum; Oxford runs a Traditional curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Buckingham delivers more didactic lectures with structured systems-based progression, while Oxford uses a more traditional lecture-led structure.

Specifics: Four-and-a-half-year accelerated MB ChB (no UCAT required). Clinical placements at Milton Keynes, Stoke Mandeville and partner NHS sites. Three years pre-clinical (Years 1-3 BMBCh first part) at Oxford, then three years clinical at Oxford-affiliated NHS hospitals. Tutorial system means s

Intake size: Buckingham — ~70 home + significant international places per year (UK's only private medical school).; Oxford — Around 175 offers are made for roughly 165 A100 places; the realised intake averages about 155 students.

A government quota caps international-fee students at a maximum of fourteen per year across A100 and A101 combined - there is no separate 24-place overseas allocation.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

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.

What makes each distinctive

Buckingham: UCAT is not used - Buckingham selects with its own computer-based MMA (Multiple Mini Assessment). Private university: fees rise to £41,500/year for UK and £47,000/year for international applicants (£186,750 and £211,500 across the 4.5 years). Apply directly, outside UCAS.

Oxford: Pooling system means each applicant is assessed at two colleges, with a centralised shortlist - applying to a "less competitive" college gives no real advantage. GCSE performance is contextualised to your school. Tutors prize lateral reasoning and willingness to engage with the unfamiliar.

Which is right for you?

For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, Buckingham is the lower-risk academic option. Both schools sit in the same England foundation-programme catchment, so post-graduation training paths overlap heavily. If you learn best in small-group case discussion, prefer Buckingham; if you prefer lecture-led foundations, the other suits better.

Your firm/insurance choice should ultimately weight: where your UCAT and predicted grades sit relative to each school's threshold, which interview format you can prepare for most credibly, and where you'd actually want to live for five or six years.

Common questions

Neither school publishes a single fixed UCAT cut-off; both use UCAT as part of a composite shortlisting score alongside GCSE and personal-statement weighting. Buckingham guidance: UCAT not used. Selection is by Buckingham's own computer-based MMA (Multiple Mini Assessment). Private university, applied to directly outside UCAS.. Oxford guidance: No published cut-off. For 2026 entry the mean UCAT was 2,217.5 across all applicants, 2,377.5 among those shortlisted and 2,407.1 among offer-holders..

Buckingham uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Three-stage selection: academic screening, digital Multiple Mini Assessment (MMA), then an MMI/OSSE task circuit. Oxford uses Traditional interview: Traditional or Panel Interviews. The two formats reward different skill sets. Plan separate prep streams for each, with at least 3 full mock interviews per format before sitting either. Interview windows: December - March (Buckingham); December (Oxford).

Buckingham requires ABB including Chemistry or Biology (4.5-year MBChB). Oxford requires A*AA including Chemistry and Biology/Physics/Mathematics. Most successful applicants achieve these grades on first sitting with strong predicted grades from their school. Resit policies differ: Buckingham — Resits considered.. Oxford — Resits accepted in extenuating circumstances only - competitive applicants typically achieve A*AA in one sitting..

Buckingham — At least grade 4 in GCSE English and at least grade 4 in GCSE Mathematics (or equivalent). Oxford — No minimum is published. 2026 entry means: 10.1 grade A*/9/8 (96% of grades) for shortlisted applicants and 10.3 (97%) for offer-holders, against 8.9 (86%) across all applicants. Contextualised to school performance. Oxford scores the number of A*/9/8 grades and the mean proportion of grades at A*/9/8, contextualised against school-level performance data; grades 8 and 9 are treated alike. The relative weighting of GCSE against UCAT is not published. Applicants with five or fewer GCSEs, or who sat them in summer 2020-2021, are handled separately.

Buckingham's selection methodology: Buckingham does not require UCAT or BMAT. Selection by interview + academic profile + personal statement. Annual fees ~£40,000+ (private school, no NHS bursary). Oxford's selection methodology: Initial shortlisting is algorithmic, combining UCAT with a GCSE measure (number and proportion of A*/9/8) contextualised to the applicant's school. Tutors then review every non-shortlisted applicant and nominate any the algorithm may have underrated; those plus the 80 candidates just below the cut-off go to the A100 Shortlisting Committee, which added 80 applicants in the 2025 round. Roughly 425 are interviewed from ~1,026 eligible applicants. Understanding each school's exact algorithm is the single highest-leverage piece of pre-application research — it tells you whether your profile is competitive before you spend an application choice.

Buckingham: Refused to state. Oxford: Strong. Of ~425 shortlisted for 2026 entry, 175 received offers - roughly 42% of home-fee interviewees (about 167 offers from ~393 interviews) and 8 of the 32 international interviewees (25%).. Post-interview odds tell you how competitive each school is at the final stage. Two schools with similar UCAT thresholds can have very different post-interview rates — a school with a 60% post-interview success rate is structurally easier to convert than one at 25%.

Buckingham runs a Integrated curriculum. Oxford runs a Traditional curriculum. The teaching philosophies differ — pick the style that matches how you learn best. Buckingham specifics: Four-and-a-half-year accelerated MB ChB (no UCAT required). Clinical placements at Milton Keynes, Stoke Mandeville and partner NHS sites. Oxford specifics: Three years pre-clinical (Years 1-3 BMBCh first part) at Oxford, then three years clinical at Oxford-affiliated NHS hospitals. Tutorial system means small-group teaching alongside lectures throughout.

You can — UCAS allows 4 medicine/dentistry choices in total, so listing both is feasible if your profile fits each school's selection algorithm. Apply to both only if your UCAT, GCSE and predicted-grade profile is competitive against each school's published weighting. A common mistake is using two of your four slots on similar schools when a more spread-out portfolio (one safe + one stretch) would maximise overall offer probability.

Where to go next

BuckinghamEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

OxfordEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 19 September 2026.

Buckingham vs Oxford

Side-by-side comparison

Buckingham vs Oxford - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Interview formats

Curriculum and teaching style

Post-interview offer rate

What makes each distinctive

Which is right for you?

Common questions

What UCAT score do I need for Buckingham vs Oxford?

How do interviews differ between Buckingham and Oxford?

What A-Level grades do Buckingham and Oxford require?

How are GCSEs weighted at Buckingham vs Oxford?

How does each school actually shortlist applicants?

Which has a higher post-interview offer rate, Buckingham or Oxford?

Where are Buckingham and Oxford located, and how does that affect cost?

When does each school release decisions?

What curriculum style do Buckingham and Oxford use?

Should I apply to both Buckingham and Oxford?

Where to go next

Other medical school comparisons