Keele vs Nottingham

Keele's published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 1700, while Nottingham sits at approximately 1850.

The 150-point spread matters: Keele offers slightly more headroom for an average-strong UCAT, while Nottingham expects performance closer to the national 75th-90th percentile.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Keele: ~1700+ /2700 with up to 3 contextual points (UCAT bursary, postcode, local school); Nottingham: ~1700+ /2700 (A108 Foundation Year - lower threshold). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

Keele requires AAA including Chemistry and Biology.

Nottingham 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 — Keele: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science. Nottingham: GCSE results form part of the academic profile alongside A-Level predictions. Maths and English at minimum grade 6 typically expected.

Keele uses Traditional (Two 15-minute structured online interviews (traditional format, not MMI; Microsoft Teams), usually around two hours apart); Nottingham uses MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)). These two formats reward different skills — Traditional emphasises academic reasoning and thinking aloud through unfamiliar problems, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

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

Interview windows: Keele interviews in December - March; Nottingham in December - March.

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

Specifics: Five-year MBChB with spiral curriculum. Strong rural/community placement strand across Staffordshire, Shropshire and Cheshire. Five-year MBChB with compulsory intercalated BMedSci built into the course (one of few UK schools to embed BMedSci as standard).

Intake size: Keele — ~150 home + ~10 international places per year (5-year MBChB) + ~30 Health Foundation Year places.; Nottingham — ~250 home + ~30 international places per year.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Keele: International: 23/54 = 43%; Home Non-Contextual: 167/491 = 34%. Nottingham: All Students (2024): 519/913 = 57% (or 336/911 = 37% from another source); A108 WP Foundation Year: 61/188 = 32%.

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.

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.

Nottingham: Scoring system is now distinct from Lincoln's, weighting GCSE (/32), UCAT (/40) and SJT (/10) - band 4 SJT auto-rejected. No use of predicted A-level grades.