Edge Hill vs Keele

Edge Hill's published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 2050, while Keele sits at approximately 1700.

That's a 350-point gap — large enough to put the two schools in completely different competitiveness tiers. An applicant scoring in the 1800-1900 band would be competitive at Keele but borderline at Edge Hill.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Edge Hill: ~1900+ /2700 (Foundation Year); Keele: ~1700+ /2700 with up to 3 contextual points (UCAT bursary, postcode, local school). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

Edge Hill requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Keele requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Both demand the same A-Level grade band, so academic prediction is unlikely to differentiate your application between them — provided you meet the required subject combination at each.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — Edge Hill: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science. Keele: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

Edge Hill uses MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)); Keele uses Traditional (Two 15-minute structured online interviews (traditional format, not MMI; Microsoft Teams), usually around two hours apart). These two formats reward different skills — MMI emphasises breadth, station-recovery and structured answers under time pressure, while Traditional rewards malleability and intellectual honesty.

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

Interview windows: Edge Hill interviews in December - March; Keele in December - March.

Edge Hill runs a PBL curriculum; Keele runs a Spiral curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Edge Hill leans on small-group case-based learning from year 1, while Keele uses a more traditional lecture-led structure.

Specifics: Five-year MBChB with PBL and case-based learning. Clinical placements across Lancashire NHS sites (Southport & Ormskirk, Wirral, Mersey Care). Five-year MBChB with spiral curriculum. Strong rural/community placement strand across Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire.

Intake size: Edge Hill — ~100 places per year (small cohort).; Keele — ~150 home + ~10 international places per year (5-year MBChB) + ~30 Health Foundation Year places.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Edge Hill: Home Student (2023): 32/115 = 28% - chances may have improved with 63 places now (vs 30 in 2023, 50 in 2024). Keele: International: 23/54 = 43%; Home Non-Contextual: 167/491 = 34%.

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.

Edge Hill: Significant proportional increase in places - now 63 places, up from 30 in 2023 and 50 in 2024. UCAT thresholds may have softened with growth. International students not accepted. Band 4 SJT auto-rejected.

Keele: Personal statement is heavily weighted (/15 of the /25 total score) - Keele has very specific PS criteria. Strong PS with band 1-2 SJT can compensate for relatively low UCAT. International applicants selected on UCAT only.