Every UK dental school in one table, with the interview window each university publishes, the format it uses and a link to the page we read it from. Checked school by school against official university websites, never aggregated from other tutoring sites, and re-checked every autumn.
Reviewed by Dr Akash Gandhi · Sources last checked: 16 September 2026
Dentistry interviews for 2027 entry run from December 2026 to March 2027. A small number of dental schools interview before Christmas, January and February are the busiest months, and invitations usually arrive two to three weeks beforehand.
Of the 18 UK dental schools, 15 publish a window you can plan around on their own website. The rest give only a general pattern, or nothing yet. The table below shows which is which, and links the exact university page each window came from.
15 October 2026
UCAS deadline for dentistry, medicine and veterinary medicine, at 18:00 UK time. Dentistry sits in the same early deadline as medicine, so there is no late application route at most schools.
Late October to December 2026
Dental schools rank applicants on UCAT score and academic requirements, then start inviting. Several dental schools shortlist later than medical schools, so a quiet November is normal.
December 2026
The first interviews. A small group of dental schools, including UCLan and Portsmouth, interview before Christmas, and several more open their window in late December.
January to March 2027
The main dentistry interview season. Most schools run multiple mini interviews or short structured panels in this window, many of them online.
By 31 March 2027
Most dental schools aim to have decided. Some make offers in batches as interviews finish, so an early interview does not always mean an early decision.
Mid-May 2027
UCAS deadline for replying to your offers, once every school has decided.
Only the schools that publish a window you can plan around appear here. Everything else is in the full table below.
November
December
January
February
Alphabetical. The badge under each window tells you whether the university has published dates for this cycle, publishes a standing window, or has not published anything yet.
| Dental school | Interview window | Format | What the university says | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Aberdeen | February to March (usual pattern)Standing window | MMI, seven stations, in person | Aberdeen publishes an undated recurring pattern rather than entry year dates, and its two pages differ: the FAQs say February to March, the application process timeline says November to March for the top 60 candidates. Initial offers at the end of March. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Queen Mary University of London (Barts) | January to February 2027Dates published | Online panel | The A200 selection criteria page is written for the September 2027 intake, so this window is current, though individual interview days are not published in advance. Interviews are online, with a panel of two senior staff plus a dental student and sometimes a lay selector. Decisions follow in March. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Birmingham | February half term (usual pattern)Standing window | MMI, in person | Birmingham states the pattern without naming an entry year: in person at the Dental School throughout February half term week, with around 300 candidates interviewed for the BDS. Overseas applicants are also expected to attend in person. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Bristol | Late December 2026 to March 2027Dates published | Structured interview, online | Shortlisting is on UCAT alone once you meet the academic minimums, and no offer is made without an interview. Watch which Bristol page you land on: its separate interviews page still describes last year's cycle. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Cardiff University | Last cycle: January 2026Last cycle only | MMI | This window is the BDS only: Dental Therapy and Hygiene ran in March. In person for home applicants, online for overseas, with at least two weeks notice. Cardiff warns that advertised dates can change. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Dundee | December 2026 to January 2027Dates published | MMI, seven stations | The interview page is the September 2027 entry page and gives a window rather than named dates. Invitations are released in phases with at least two weeks notice where possible. UK applicants attend in person, international applicants remotely. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of East Anglia (UEA) | November 2026 to March 2027Dates published | MMI, on campus | A new dental school whose first cohort starts September 2027, with 25 UK and 11 international places. The window is published but not the dates. Invitations go out by email from late November or December, and interview and UCAT scores are weighted equally when offers are made. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Glasgow | Late January to early February 2027Dates published | MMI | Stated on Glasgow's 2027 entry dentistry page and repeated in its BDS admissions document updated September 2026. The 2027 person specification confirms ranking by UCAT with around 200 selected for interview and notification in December. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| King's College London | December 2026 to March 2027Dates published | Panel of two, remote | A general window on the September 2027 entry page. Note the format change: King's now interviews remotely with a panel of two, which it explicitly contrasts with previous years when it ran in person MMIs with six interviewers. Invitations give at least two weeks notice. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Lancashire (UCLan) | 14 and 15 December 2026Dates published | MMI | The only dental school publishing named 2027 entry dates, and it states explicitly that no other dates will be held. Applicants are ranked before interview and the highest scoring are invited. Whether these run online or at Preston is still to be confirmed. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Leeds | February 2027Dates published | MMI | Stated on the 2027 entry course page, worded as typically scheduled in February rather than as named dates. Rescheduling is only for exceptional circumstances such as a clashing interview elsewhere, and some stations may be held in clinics. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Liverpool | Mid January to end of February 2027Dates published | MMI | The page is explicitly titled for 2027 entry, so the window is cycle specific. Bring original certificates for all completed qualifications to the interview: letters from schools and exam boards are not accepted. No offer is made without an interview. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Manchester | January to March (usual pattern)Standing window | MMI, seven minute stations | Manchester states only that interviews normally run from January to March, with no cycle named and no dates. Slots are booked through Gecko with an email reminder a week before. There is no advance information and no reading or writing component. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Newcastle University | February to March 2027Dates published | Semi-structured panel, online | Published in the School of Dental Sciences admissions policy for 2027 entry. The panel grades six domains and selectors do not see your grades or UCAT score. Applicants unsuccessful at shortlisting are normally told by March. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Plymouth | December to February (usual pattern)Standing window | MMI | The window sits in an undated FAQ and names no cycle. The delivery statement on the same page still refers to the 2024 admissions cycle, so whether interviews are online or in person is not currently published. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Portsmouth | December 2026 and January 2027 (anticipated)Dates published | Online panel | 2027 is Portsmouth's first intake open to UK students, with 25 government funded places. Shortlisting decisions come in November or December 2026 and offers in March 2027. Note the course page contradicts itself on format, saying elsewhere that the interview may be online or on campus. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Queen's University Belfast | Not publishedNot published yetMost UK interviews run December to March. | MMI, in person; online for international | Queen's publishes no interview window for dentistry in any year, on any of its course, admissions, policy or candidate pages. Beware the widely quoted mid December to March window: that is on Queen's medicine page and is explicitly about medicine. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Sheffield | Last cycle: last week of February 2026Last cycle only | Panel plus group task, on campus | Sheffield ran selection days in the last week of February in each of the last two cycles, with invitations towards the end of January. On campus only, no online option. Its 2027 page says this cycle's dates will be published there, so expect an update. | Official pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
Every window above was read from the university's own website on the date shown in the last column. Dental schools change their windows and occasionally leave an old page up, so treat this table as a planning tool and confirm on the official page before you book travel or time off.
The right preparation depends less on which schools you hold than on how many weeks stand between you and the first one.
If one of yours is in the first wave
7 schools open their window in November or December, so a single early offer can pull your whole timeline forward by two months. With weeks rather than months, a mock in the right format tells you fastest what to fix.
If you have a month or more
Enough time to build technique rather than patch it: motivation, ethics frameworks, role play and the stations your specific schools use, worked through with a tutor who has sat on the other side of a dental school interview panel.
If nothing is confirmed yet
Most schools give two to three weeks of notice, so waiting for the invitation is the one plan that reliably fails. A one-day course covers how interviews are scored, hot topics and role play before your first date lands.
Not sure which you need? A free consultation takes ten minutes, or see the dentistry packages if you want the whole application covered rather than the interview alone.
From UCAT to interviews: complete dentistry application support from qualified dentists and doctors.
Find your four choices in the table and note the earliest window. If one of them interviews in December, that is the date your preparation has to be ready for, whatever the others do.
For the preparation itself, work through our dental school practice interview questions, the dentistry ethical scenarios and the NHS dentistry hot topics briefing. To rehearse with a dentist who has sat on the other side of the table, see dentistry interview coaching.
Applying to medicine as well? The same table for medical schools is at UK medical school interview dates. Comparing schools rather than dates? See the UK dental school rankings.
Every row was read off the university's own website: the BDS course page, the selection or admissions page, or an official admissions policy document on the same domain. We do not take interview dates from forums, aggregator sites or other tutoring companies, because that is how a wrong date spreads for a whole cycle.
Where a school has not published dates for 2027 entry, we say so instead of advancing last year's dates by twelve months. Where a school publishes a standing window rather than named dates, the badge says standing window. The date in the last column is the day we last read that page, and the whole table is re-checked every autumn as the new cycle opens.
Expert 1-1 support across UCAT, personal statement and interviews for dentistry applicants.
Dentistry interviews for 2027 entry run from December 2026 to March 2027, with a small number of schools continuing into April. December is the earliest wave, January and February are the busiest, and a few schools interview as late as March. The precise window varies by school and several dental schools publish only a standing pattern rather than dated interview days, which is exactly what the table on this page separates out.
Slightly, on average. Medicine has a bigger December wave, while dentistry clusters more heavily in January and February, and several dental schools run their whole window online. If you are applying to both, expect your medicine interviews to arrive first and plan for the possibility that dentistry invitations land while you are still interviewing elsewhere.
Typically two to three weeks, and sometimes less. Invitations come by email and through the university's applicant portal, with a slot to book on a first come first served basis. Because several dental schools interview online, the practical arrangements are simpler than for medicine, but the notice period is just as short, so preparation needs to start before the invitation arrives.
Most UK dental schools use multiple mini interviews (MMIs): a circuit of short stations covering motivation, ethics, communication, manual dexterity awareness and situational judgement. A minority run structured panel interviews instead, usually 15 to 25 minutes with two selectors. The format column in the table above records what each university states on its own pages, because preparing for a station circuit and preparing for a panel are genuinely different tasks.
Yes, for the standard BDS route. Every UK dental school interviews shortlisted applicants before making an offer, and no school offers a place on grades and UCAT alone. What differs is how many applicants reach the interview: most schools shortlist hard on UCAT first, so the interview is the final stage rather than a wide net.
That is common in dentistry and it is not a warning sign. Several dental schools publish a standing window that is not tied to an entry year, and a couple publish nothing at all until invitations go out. Where that is the case, the table says so rather than presenting last year's dates as this year's. Use the school's usual pattern for planning, and confirm on the university's own page before booking anything around it.
From 1-1 tutoring and personal statement editing to interview coaching and our all-in-one Ultimate Package, we support every stage. Tell us what you are aiming for and we will recommend the right option.
Ultimate Package students from our 2025/26 cycle, with their UCAT scores and offers, who trained with us for the UCAT, personal statements and interviews.
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