Where are Oxford and Ulster University Medical School located, and how does that affect cost?

Oxford is in Oxford, UK. Ulster University Medical School is in Londonderry, 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?

Oxford typically releases medicine decisions January. Ulster University Medical School releases medicine decisions March onwards. 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

Oxford vs Ulster University Medical School

Oxford and Ulster University Medical School are both UK medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Oxford is based in Oxford (England) while Ulster University Medical School sits in Londonderry (London), and the regional context shapes everything from fee status to NHS-deanery destination.

The interview formats diverge — Panel vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different. Oxford is the older institution (founded 1096); the other (founded 2021) has shaped its medical school around modern integrated-curriculum thinking.

Side-by-side comparison

Show only differences

Side-by-side comparison: Oxford and Ulster University Medical School.
Comparison field	OxfordOxford	Ulster University Medical SchoolLondonderry
Quick comparison
Location	Oxford, UK	Londonderry, UK
A-Level offer	AAA at A-level (and AAA predictions) including Chemistry plus one of Biology, Mathematics, Further Mathematics or Physics	Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in any honours degree
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	Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
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	March onwards

A-Level offer	AAA at A-level (and AAA predictions) including Chemistry plus one of Biology, Mathematics, Further Mathematics or Physics	Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in any honours degree
Contextual A-Level offer	-	-
Required A-Level subjects	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 accepted with extenuating circumstances - must resit all 3 subjects in the same sitting	Resits accepted.
GCSE requirements	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	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.	2:1 (Upper-second-class Honours) or above in any honours degree (Arts, Science, Humanities all accepted)
Alternative qualifications	4 A-levels and/or EPQ are not beneficial in the shortlisting algorithm. Three A-levels is sufficient.	Graduate-entry only. UCAT NOT used - Ulster uses GAMSAT (Graduate Medical School Admissions Test). Recent GAMSAT thresholds have been ~61. Plus 2:1 honours degree and MMI interview. Strong Northern Ireland regional focus.

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	-	Not applicable - Ulster uses GAMSAT, not the UCAT. Recent thresholds have been around 61.
SJT band	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	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…	GAMSAT is scored out of 100. Do not sit the UCAT for this course.

Degree awarded	BM BCh	MBBS
Course length	6 years (3 pre-clinical + 3 clinical)	4 years (graduate entry)
Teaching style	Traditional / lecture-led	Integrated
Anatomy teaching	Prosection	Imaging and models
First patient contact	-	-
Placement geography	Oxford	Across Northern Ireland
Named placement sites	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	-	Based at the Magee campus in Derry~Londonderry, alongside other healthcare programmes.

Interview window	December	December - March
Interview details	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…	MMI format with multiple stations. Focus on serving Northern Ireland's healthcare needs alongside standard motivation, ethics and communication content.

Specialities	Clinical Medicine, Biomedical Sciences, Medical Research	Medicine, Community Medicine
Established	1096	2021
Course type	Undergraduate	Undergraduate
What makes it different	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…	New medical school serving Northern Ireland. Strong regional focus, with the course oriented around local workforce needs. Cut-offs have not yet stabilised.
Official course page	https://www.ox.ac.uk/admissions/undergraduate/courses/course-listing/medicine	https://www.ulster.ac.uk/courses/202627/medicine-41407

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

Ulster University Medical School

Londonderry

Quick comparison

Location: Londonderry, UK
A-Level offer: Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in any honours degree
TrueScore: -
UCAT home cut-off: -
Interview format: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)
Post-interview chance: -
Decision date: March onwards

Oxford vs Ulster University Medical School - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

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

Ulster University Medical School requires Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in any honours degree.

GCSE profile matters at both schools — 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… Ulster University Medical School: Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

Interview formats

Oxford uses Panel (Traditional or Panel Interviews); Ulster University Medical School uses MMI (Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI)). These two formats reward different skills — Panel emphasises narrative coherence and the ability to develop a thread under follow-up questioning, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

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

Interview windows: Oxford interviews in December; Ulster University Medical School in December - March.

Curriculum and teaching style

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

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 s Four-year accelerated MBBS for graduates. Clinical placements across Northern Ireland NHS sites (Magee Campus, Western HSC, Northern HSC).

Intake size: 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.; Ulster University Medical School — ~70 places per year (small cohort, NI-focused)..

A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

What makes each distinctive

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.

Ulster University Medical School: New medical school serving Northern Ireland. Strong regional focus, with the course oriented around local workforce needs. Cut-offs have not yet stabilised.

Which is right for you?

Regionally, the choice often comes down to cost of living and NHS-deanery preferences — Oxford feeds into the England foundation programme network; Ulster University Medical School into the London network. If you learn best in small-group case discussion, prefer Oxford; 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. 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.. Ulster University Medical School guidance: GAMSAT is scored out of 100. Do not sit the UCAT for this course..

Oxford uses Traditional interview: Traditional or Panel Interviews. Ulster University Medical School uses Multiple Mini Interviews: Multiple Mini Interviews (MMI). 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 (Oxford); December - March (Ulster University Medical School).

Oxford requires A*AA including Chemistry and Biology/Physics/Mathematics. Ulster University Medical School requires Graduate entry - 2:1 or above in any honours degree. Most successful applicants achieve these grades on first sitting with strong predicted grades from their school. Resit policies differ: Oxford — Resits accepted in extenuating circumstances only - competitive applicants typically achieve A*AA in one sitting.. Ulster University Medical School — Resits accepted..

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. Ulster University Medical School — Min 5 GCSEs at grade 6 (B) including Maths, English Language, dual-award Science.

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. Ulster University Medical School's selection methodology: Graduate-entry only: a 2:1 honours degree in any discipline plus GAMSAT (recent threshold ~61 out of 100), then MMI. Strong Northern Ireland regional focus. 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.

Oxford runs a Traditional curriculum. Ulster University Medical School runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies differ — pick the style that matches how you learn best. 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. Ulster University Medical School specifics: Four-year accelerated MBBS for graduates. Clinical placements across Northern Ireland NHS sites (Magee Campus, Western HSC, Northern HSC).

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

OxfordEntry requirements, interview format and key dates in full

Ulster University Medical SchoolEntry 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.

Oxford vs Ulster University Medical School

Side-by-side comparison

Oxford vs Ulster University Medical School - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Interview formats

Curriculum and teaching style

What makes each distinctive

Which is right for you?

Common questions

What UCAT score do I need for Oxford vs Ulster University Medical School?

How do interviews differ between Oxford and Ulster University Medical School?

What A-Level grades do Oxford and Ulster University Medical School require?

How are GCSEs weighted at Oxford vs Ulster University Medical School?

How does each school actually shortlist applicants?

Where are Oxford and Ulster University Medical School located, and how does that affect cost?

When does each school release decisions?

What curriculum style do Oxford and Ulster University Medical School use?

Should I apply to both Oxford and Ulster University Medical School?

Where to go next

Other medical school comparisons