Newcastle vs Nottingham

Newcastle's published UCAT threshold for home applicants is around 1900, while Nottingham sits at approximately 1850.

Their UCAT bars are statistically indistinguishable (within 50 points), so the UCAT is unlikely to be your differentiator between them.

Contextual / widening-participation cut-offs differ — Newcastle: ~1900+ /2700 (Partners - same cut-off as home); Nottingham: ~1700+ /2700 (A108 Foundation Year - lower threshold). Eligible applicants should weight this heavily when choosing.

Newcastle 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 — Newcastle: Top 8 GCSE grades scored; not used if A-Level academic criteria already met. Bio/Chem/Physics A-Levels need pass in practical element. Nottingham: GCSE results form part of the academic profile alongside A-Level predictions. Maths and English at minimum grade 6 typically expected.

Both Newcastle and Nottingham 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: Newcastle interviews in December - January; Nottingham in December - March.

Newcastle runs a Case-based curriculum; Nottingham runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Newcastle leans on small-group case-based learning from year 1, while Nottingham uses a more traditional lecture-led structure.

Specifics: Five-year MBBS with case-based learning. Clinical placements across Newcastle Hospitals NHS Trust and partner sites in the North East. Five-year MBChB with compulsory intercalated BMedSci built into the course (one of few UK schools to embed BMedSci as standard).

Intake size: Newcastle — ~270 home + ~25 international places per year across Newcastle and Malaysia campuses.; Nottingham — ~250 home + ~30 international places per year.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Newcastle: International: 82/88 = 93% (2025); Graduate Entry: 46/86 = 53%; Home Non-Contextual: 418/577 = 72%; Home Widening Participation: 194/350 = 55%. 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.

Newcastle: Heavy use of UCAT post-interview - high scorers are rewarded disproportionately by Newcastle's scoring system. The Partners contextual programme has generous eligibility (e.g. all Indian, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage applicants including those at private school).

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.