Where are King's College London (KCL) and University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) located, and how does that affect cost?

King's College London (KCL) is in London, UK. University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is in Preston, 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?

King's College London (KCL) typically releases medicine decisions By the end of May. University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) releases medicine decisions March - April. 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

King's College London (KCL) vs University of Central Lancashire (UCLan)

King's College London (KCL) and University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. King's College London (KCL) is based in London (London) while University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) sits in Preston (England), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

Their A-Level requirements (A*AA vs AAB) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers. King's College London (KCL) is the older institution (founded 1829); the other (founded 2014) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: King's College London (KCL) and University of Central Lancashire (UCLan).
Comparison field	King's College London (KCL)London	University of Central Lancashire (UCLan)Preston
Quick comparison
Location	London, UK	Preston, UK
A-Level offer	A*AA including grade A in Biology and Chemistry. General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required. The EPQ is not considered at any point in the assessment process.	AAB at A-level including Biology and Chemistry (home applicants)
TrueScore	King's College London (KCL) TrueScore 2150	-
UCAT home cut-off	No cut-off published. King's states that the minimum scores of interviewees and offer-holders "are not cut-off scores".	UCAT used for home applicant shortlisting; no published cut-off
Interview format	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance	Strong. In the 2024 cycle King's interviewed 982 applicants and made 762 offers (78%) - 609 offers from 796 UK interviews (77%) and 153 from 186 non-UK interviews (82%). The 2023 cycle was tighter at 645 offers from 1,116 interviews (58%).	-
Decision date	By the end of May	March - April

A-Level offer	A*AA including grade A in Biology and Chemistry. General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required. The EPQ is not considered at any point in the assessment process.	AAB at A-level including Biology and Chemistry (home applicants)
Contextual A-Level offer	-	-
Required A-Level subjects	Biology and Chemistry both required	-
A-Level resit policy	Resits accepted - KCL has clarified via FOI that "a first resit is considered equally to applicants taking their first sittings" (19 resit applicants received an interview in 2024, 16 received offers)	-
GCSE requirements	Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics	-
GCSE scoring methodology	GCSEs are one of the four factors King's names in shortlisting, alongside A-level grades, UCAT and the personal statement, and performance is read in the context of your educational background. King's…	-
Scottish Highers	-	-
Scottish Advanced Highers	-	-
International Baccalaureate	38 points overall (including TOK/EE), or an aggregate of 19 from three Higher Levels, and must include grade 6 in Higher Level Biology and Higher Level Chemistry	-
Graduate-entry degree requirement	Graduate applicants typically hold 2:1 or above in any honours degree, plus required A-level Chemistry and Biology grades. KCL accepts graduates onto the standard 6-year MBBS A100.	-
Alternative qualifications	-	-

Contextual cut-off	-	-
Scottish (where applicable)	-	-
Rest of UK (where applicable)	-	-
International cut-off	No separate cut-off published.	Cognitive subtests considered alongside academic and personal-statement assessment
Graduate cut-off	-	-
SJT band	Band 4 automatically rejected. Band 3 riskier - only 37/360 band 3 applicants received interview in 2024.	-
UCAT notes	King's shortlists on A-level grades, UCAT, personal statement and GCSE grades together, and says exam results and UCAT are "perhaps the most important factors". Its published UCAT statistics stop at t…	UCLan publishes limited shortlisting detail. Threshold varies year-on-year; check the official course page closer to your application year.

Degree awarded	MBBS	MBBS
Course length	5 years (6 with intercalation)	5 years
Teaching style	Integrated + Case-based learning	Spiral
Anatomy teaching	Full-body dissection	-
First patient contact	-	Year 1
Placement geography	London and the south east of England	Lancashire and Cumbria
Named placement sites	Guy's Hospital, King's College Hospital, St Thomas' Hospital	East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust, North Cumbria Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust
Intercalation	Optional one-year BSc between Stages 2 and 3, spanning clinical and biomedical sciences and the humanities.	Optional and selective: after year 4, high-performing students may be offered an additional year to gain a master’s degree.
Course highlight	Twinned with medical schools around the world, offering clinical exchanges.	-

Interview window	November - May	December - February
Interview details	MMI format with stations covering ethical scenarios, communication and clinical problem-solving. No offer is made without an interview, and King's runs them across an unusually long window - November…	MMI of approximately 7-9 timed stations covering motivation, ethics, communication, role-play and data interpretation. Home and international applicants are interviewed on the same MMI structure.

Specialities	Medicine, Dentistry, Biomedical Sciences	Medicine, Community Medicine
Established	1829	2014
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	Strong clinical focus with emphasis on London healthcare system.	One of the first UK universities to run a privately-funded medical school open to international students; substantial international cohort blended with a smaller home intake. Strong Lancashire regiona…
Official course page	https://www.kcl.ac.uk/study/undergraduate/courses/medicine-mbbs	https://www.lancashire.ac.uk/

King's College London (KCL)

London

Quick comparison

Location: London, UK
A-Level offer: A*AA including grade A in Biology and Chemistry. General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required. The EPQ is not considered at any point in the assessment process.
TrueScore: King's College London (KCL) TrueScore 2150
UCAT home cut-off: No cut-off published. King's states that the minimum scores of interviewees and offer-holders "are not cut-off scores".
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: Strong. In the 2024 cycle King's interviewed 982 applicants and made 762 offers (78%) - 609 offers from 796 UK interviews (77%) and 153 from 186 non-UK interviews (82%). The 2023 cycle was tighter at 645 offers from 1,116 interviews (58%).
Decision date: By the end of May

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan)

Preston

Quick comparison

Location: Preston, UK
A-Level offer: AAB at A-level including Biology and Chemistry (home applicants)
TrueScore: -
UCAT home cut-off: UCAT used for home applicant shortlisting; no published cut-off
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: -
Decision date: March - April

King's College London (KCL) vs University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) requires AAB at A-level including Biology and Chemistry (home applicants).

King's College London (KCL) is the stricter A-Level offer; University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is slightly more forgiving. If your predicted grades are borderline, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) carries the lower academic-rejection risk pre-interview.

Interview formats

Both King's College London (KCL) and University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) 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.

Interview windows: King's College London (KCL) interviews in November - May; University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in December - February.

What makes each distinctive

King's College London (KCL): Strong clinical focus with emphasis on London healthcare system.

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan): One of the first UK universities to run a privately-funded medical school open to international students; substantial international cohort blended with a smaller home intake. Strong Lancashire regional placement network.

Which is right for you?

For applicants with predicted A-Level grades at the lower end of the AAA-A*AA range, University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) is the lower-risk academic option. Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — King's College London (KCL) feeds into the London foundation programme network; University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) into the England network.

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

King's College London (KCL): no cut-off published. University of Central Lancashire (UCLan): home applicants — no published cut-off. These are the figures on record for 2027-entry applicants. Schools without a fixed cut-off rank UCAT inside a composite shortlisting score, so thresholds move with each year's applicant pool — confirm the latest figure on each school's admissions page.

King's College London (KCL) uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). The format is the same, so the same prep approach applies — practise ethics frameworks, NHS hot topics, and (for MMI) structured 5-7 minute station answers. Interview windows: November - May (King's College London (KCL)); December - February (University of Central Lancashire (UCLan)).

King's College London (KCL) requires A*AA including grade A in Biology and Chemistry. General Studies, Critical Thinking, Thinking Skills and Global Perspectives are not accepted, and a pass in the science practical endorsement is required. The EPQ is not considered at any point in the assessment process.. University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) requires AAB at A-level including Biology and Chemistry (home applicants). Most successful applicants achieve these grades on first sitting with strong predicted grades from their school.

King's College London (KCL) — Minimum grade 6/B in GCSE English Language and Mathematics. GCSEs are one of the four factors King's names in shortlisting, alongside A-level grades, UCAT and the personal statement, and performance is read in the context of your educational background. King's does not publish a points tariff for GCSEs. University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) — GCSE performance considered as part of the broader academic profile; specific scoring not published.

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

King's College London (KCL)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

University of Central Lancashire (UCLan)Entry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Other medical school comparisons

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed 11 September 2026.