Graduate Entry Medicine
Ultimate Guide To Graduate Entry Medicine 2026
Thinking of applying to graduate-entry medicine, but unsure how to apply, what its requirements are, key dates, and how to boost your application? Find out everything you need about succeeding in your graduate entry medicine GEM application in 2025.
What is Graduate Entry Medicine?
UK graduate entry medicine, often called grad med or GEM, lets people who already hold a degree retrain as doctors. Most apply for the dedicated accelerated four-year course (UCAS code A101), though graduates can also enter the standard five-year medicine course (A100).
As a UK graduate medical student, you have access to various courses ranging from spots on standard 5-6 year medicine courses to dedicated 4-year accelerated GEM courses.
This article gives you all the information that you need to know, including where you can study GEM, what you need to study GEM, how to apply for it and how much it costs.
Which universities offer graduate entry medicine?
Various universities offer GEM programs in the UK, so you’ll want to look at deciding which ones to apply to based on factors such as their admissions criteria, proximity to home and UK medicine rankings.
For more help with making this decision, check out our dedicated guide to choosing a medical school or our guides to each individual medical school. There are many in different regions - in particular, London graduate entry medicine is very popular.
Around 20 UK universities run dedicated graduate entry (A101) courses, and the list keeps growing, with newer entrants such as the University of Surrey, the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine and Ulster joining the longer-established programmes. Provision changes most years, so always confirm directly with each medical school before you apply. As a guide, GEM courses are offered at universities including:
- Barts: 39 spots for students with science or non-science degrees.
- Birmingham: Offers a four-year graduate entry course; check current recruitment status for your entry year.
- Cambridge: Around 39 places for graduates; unlike undergraduate medicine, you may apply to both Oxford and Cambridge for GEM in the same UCAS cycle.
- Cardiff: Places only available for students on a Feeder Stream course
- Chester: Currently only available to international students with science or non-science degrees.
- Dundee/St Andrews - ScotGEM (Scotland Graduate Entry Medicine): 55 spots for students with science or non-science degrees.
- Imperial College London: The course is currently suspended for curriculum updates.
- King’s College London: 28 spots for students with science degrees.
- Liverpool: 29 spots for students with science degrees.
- Newcastle: 25 spots for students with science or non-science degrees.
- Nottingham: 93 spots for students with science or non-science degrees.
- Oxford: 30 spots for students with science degrees.
- Sheffield: 15 spots for students from Widening Participation backgrounds with science or non-science degrees.
- Southampton: 48 spots for students with science or non-science degrees.
- St George’s: 70 spots for students with science or non-science degrees.
- Swansea: 100 spots for students with science or non-science degrees.
- Worcester: Currently only available to international students with science or non-science degrees.
- Warwick: 193 spots for students with science or non-science degrees.
Of course, there are also opportunities for graduate students to study medicine across the globe, for instance, graduate entry medicine in Europe.
Graduates also have strong options in Ireland, where the four-year graduate entry route uses the GAMSAT. See our study medicine in Ireland guide for entry requirements, fees and deadlines.
What are the Graduate Entry Medicine requirements?
Requirements for graduate entry medicine vary per medical school.
Requirements for graduate entry medicine do vary depending on which medical school you are applying to, so you should check with each one.
However, it is important to consider that many of these programs do not have A-level requirements so you can study graduate entry medicine even with bad A-levels - your first degree is a more relevant academic criterion for universities to use when assessing you.
It is also possible to study graduate entry medicine with a non-science degree. Check out the list of universities above for details on which universities are most likely to accept candidates without a science degree.
Whether you’ve studied Chemistry or Italian, there are spots available to you for UK postgraduate medicine.
Generally, you will need:
- At least a 2:1 degree, ideally a 1st class degree
- To sit the GAMSAT, UCAT or MCAT admissions test and perform well
- Relevant medicine work experience
- Some strong references from people whom you trust
- A well-written and interesting personal statement
What are the admissions tests for graduate entry medicine?
Postgraduate entry into medicine will generally require you to sit at least one admissions test. Different universities require different tests, as outlined below.
- Barts: Requires the UCAT
- Birmingham: Requires the UCAT
- Cambridge: Requires UCAT (as of 2024, 2025 Entry)
- Cardiff: Requires the GAMSAT
- Chester: Requires the UCAT
- Dundee/St Andrews - ScotGEM: Requires the GAMSAT
- Imperial College London: Requires UCAT (as of 2024, 2025 Entry)
- King’s College London: Requires the UCAT
- Liverpool: Requires the GAMSAT
- Newcastle: Requires the UCAT
- Nottingham: Requires the GAMSAT
- Oxford: Requires UCAT (as of 2024, 2025 Entry)
- Sheffield: Requires the UCAT
- Southampton: Requires the UCAT
- St George’s: Requires the GAMSAT
- Swansea: Requires the GAMSAT for UK applicants, and GAMSAT or MCAT for international applicants
- Worcester: Requires the UCAT, GAMSAT or MCAT
- Warwick: Requires the UCAT
Find out more about how universities use the UCAT here.
The UCAT requires no prior knowledge beyond basic maths skills and is an extremely time-pressured multiple-choice exam.
The GAMSAT is a day-long test divided into three sections: reasoning in humanities and social sciences; written communication, and reasoning in biological and physical sciences.
You should consider which suits your strengths more, and which is relevant to the universities that interest you more.
In practice the GAMSAT-only schools (such as Nottingham, Cardiff, St George's and ScotGEM) and the UCAT schools (such as Warwick, Barts and Newcastle) split fairly evenly, with a few accepting either test. Read our Ultimate GAMSAT graduate entry guide for the full breakdown, and our UCAT guides hub if you are sitting the UCAT instead.
For help with these exams, get in touch with our expert tutoring team and check out the guides on our website.
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How do I apply for GEM?
As with undergraduate medicine, GEM must be applied to through UCAS (the Universities & Colleges Admissions Service). UCAS (Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) is the centralised body that manages all higher education applications in the UK.
Your UCAS graduate entry medicine application is then sent to all universities to which you are applying, so you don’t need to worry about applying to each of them individually.
The medicine timeline is earlier than most subjects: the UCAS deadline for medicine (including graduate entry) is 6pm on 15 October each year, for entry the following September. You can apply to up to four medical schools, and unlike standard undergraduate medicine you may include both Oxford and Cambridge among those four for GEM.
Check out our UCAS guide for information on how the process works and what the associated costs are.
What is ScotGEM?
ScotGEM is a unique four-year program run by the University of Dundee and the University of Aberdeen in collaboration.
Students will spend their first two years under St Andrews, before concluding their education with two years led by Aberdeen.
Students are based in St Andrews in first year but move around a lot afterwards.
Much time is spent in rural areas of the Highlands and Dumfries and Galloway, so students must be prepared for this unique situation to take full advantage of the opportunity offered here.
How does funding work for GEM (four-year accelerated)?
Many people have a misconception that GEM students must self-fund their entire university careers, however, this is far from the truth.
In fact, various graduate entry medicine funding schemes are available to you.
For a full year-by-year breakdown of fees, loans, the NHS Bursary and the real cost of GEM, see our dedicated graduate entry medicine funding, costs and fees guide.
In year 1 of the accelerated four-year course, tuition fees are £9,790 (2026/27 rate for English-domiciled students). On A101 courses you are responsible for paying roughly the first £3,665 yourself, and Student Finance England can lend the remainder (around £6,125) as a non-means-tested tuition fee loan. Some universities expect the self-funded portion paid upfront, while others offer instalment schemes, so check each institution's website.
Check their individual websites for more information. If you are eligible for a tuition fee loan from Student Finance England, you will also be eligible for a non-means-tested loan for the remainder of the tuition fee.
From year 2 of an accelerated four-year (A101) course, the NHS Bursary scheme contributes towards your tuition fees (a fee contribution of up to roughly £3,830 for 2025/26), with the balance covered by a tuition fee loan from Student Finance England. Exact figures are reviewed annually, so confirm the current rates on the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) website.
However, you will of course have to repay your student loans later (though NHS bursaries are non-repayable).
In first year, if you are eligible for student finance then you should be able to take out a £4,422 non-means-tested loan for the costs of living. You may also be eligible for means-tested support from both your university and the government, dependent on household income. If you are above the age of 25, married or have been in full-time employment for at least three years then you are considered an “independent student” and your parents’ household income will not be assessed when determining how much you will have to pay.
In subsequent years, your maintenance loan is reduced to just £2,534. However, you are also eligible for £1,000 of non-means-tested money from the NHS bursary scheme and up to £2,643 of means-tested money (including the initial £1,000) plus £84 for every additional week of education beyond 30.
In Scotland, your tuition fees will be fully funded if you are on the ScotGEM program! Other Scottish students, however, will have to self-fund their tuition fees for the entire course.
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How does funding work for graduate entry students applying for standard medical undergraduate courses?
For your first four years, tuition fees are £9,250 per year.
You will have to pay this directly to the university. Some will expect this fee paid upfront, whilst others have schemes available for termly payments or payments in instalments.
Check their individual websites for more information.
From your fifth year onwards, you will be eligible for the NHS Bursary Scheme for tuition fee support. They will pay your fees in full and you will never have to pay this money back.
For your first four years, you will also be eligible for a full maintenance loan from Student Finance England. The amount that you can receive will vary depending on your circumstances and where you are living.
If you are above the age of 25, married or have been in full-time employment for at least three years then you are considered an “independent student” and your parents’ household income will not be assessed when determining how much you will have to pay.
In fifth year and beyond, the NHS Bursary Scheme will provide you with £1,000 to cover the costs of living. This is non-means tested and non-repayable. You could also receive up to £3,191 of means-tested money (including the initial £1,000) plus £108 for every additional week of education beyond 30.
Scottish students will only have to pay £1,820 per year of tuition fees for their first four years if they study in Scotland. If they study in England or Wales, they will have to pay the full amount.
Transferring Into Medicine From Another Career
Becoming a doctor later in life in the UK can be done in various different ways. One of the most appealing for many candidates is transferring into Medicine from a different degree, as very little additional time in university is required.
These can provide pathways to studying medicine from various courses, such as UK nursing to medicine or pharmacist to doctor conversions as well as for biochemists or biomedical scientists into graduate entry medicine.
Is it possible to transfer into medicine?
In short - yes!
No fewer than 12 universities in the UK have schemes which allow you to transfer into medicine. However, all of these are extremely competitive because candidates who miss out on medicine often study at these universities intending to transfer.
As such, you should make sure that you aren’t just going to these universities because there is a possibility of transferring. You may be stuck in the course that you select, so it should also be something that you are genuinely passionate about and want to study.
Which universities have transfer to medicine graduate entry schemes?
The following universities have schemes that may allow you to transfer into medicine. Make sure to research each one fully by looking at their websites.
Students who perform exceptionally in the first year of BSc Medical Science, BSc Biomedical Science and BOptom Optometry can apply to transfer to Medicine. Last year, 7 of 52 applicants were successful. Requirements include a strong UCAT score, appropriate GCSEs, a 75% average across first year and no less than 65% in any one module.
Bradford University
This scheme is aimed at widening participation students. After completing one year of a Foundation in Clinical Sciences/Medicine course or BSc Clinical Sciences at Bradford, students can apply to transfer to study medicine at Sheffield University. They need to meet at least two widening participation criteria, meet their UCAT threshold, and average 70% in first year, including 70% in Chemistry and no failed assessments.
Brighton and Sussex Medical School guarantees interviews for well-performing Biomedical, Biological and Pharmacy students from Brighton University. They have schemes available for students after first and third year.
Cardiff reserves some places for students in third year of a recognised feeder stream: BSc (Hons) Medical Pharmacology degree, Cardiff University; BSc (Hons) Biomedical Sciences degree, Cardiff University; BSc (Hons) Medical Sciences degree, University of South Wales; BMedSci (Hons) Medical Sciences degree, Bangor University. Students transfer into the second year of their five-year medicine program.
Final-year BSc Medical Sciences and BSc Neuroscience students can apply to medicine and will be shortlisted for interview if they are predicted to receive a 2:1 or 1st class degree, and haven’t experienced “significant issues” during their time at Exeter.
Leicester’s scheme is available to those who have finished a year of BSc in Biological Sciences, Medical Biochemistry, Medical Genetics, Medical Physiology, or Medical Microbiology. This is highly competitive and not guaranteed. Additionally, strong A-Levels and first-year university grades are required as well as good performance in the UCAT and a strong personal statement.
Approximately 10 students can transfer into medicine each year if they have performed exceptionally in degree within the School of Biological Sciences. Unfortunately, details of this scheme are only made available internally to eligible students so we do not have more information.
Newcastle makes up to 7 places each year available to students registered at the Faculty of Medical Sciences on Biomedical or Biomolecular Sciences programs. They can apply to transfer to stage 1 of Medicine after completing stage 1 of Biomedical Sciences.
Plymouth makes 5 spaces available each year for students to transfer from Biomedical Science to Medicine or Dentistry after year 1 is completed. This is, however, extremely competitive.
Queen Mary, University of London
QMU collates a list of students on the Biomedical Sciences, Neuroscience, and Pharmacology and Innovative Therapeutics programmes. The top 19 highest-ranked on this joint list are guaranteed an interview for the 5-year Medicine program at Barts. This ranking is based on academic scores (50%) and UCAT score (50%). Of these, the top 5 will be considered for the accelerated four-year Graduate Entry programme.
Students studying BSc Biomedical Sciences at St George’s can apply for their Clinical Transfer programme. 25 students can fast-track to Year 2 of the accelerated 4-year GEM programme upon completion of their Biomedical Sciences degree. These spots are contingent on academic performance during students’ degrees and success at an MMI interview.
Biomedical Science or Medical Neuroscience students at this university are guaranteed an interview at Brighton and Sussex Medical School. They can apply in first or third year, with different criteria for each.
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What are my other options?
Mature student entry to medicine can take various forms. If you don’t manage to transfer out of your degree into medicine then you can become a doctor with a biomedical science degree, you can get into medicine with a nursing degree and you can study medicine with almost any other degree.
How can I get help with applying for GEM?
For assistance with your application to GEM, get in touch with our team of expert tutors who can help you with every stage of your application. Additionally, check out our guides to the GAMSAT!
Frequently asked questions
What is graduate entry medicine (GEM)?
Graduate entry medicine is a route into medicine for people who already hold a degree. Most students apply for the accelerated four-year course (UCAS code A101), which condenses the standard programme. Graduates can also apply for the standard five-year medicine course (A100). GEM places weight on your existing degree, admissions test and work experience rather than A-levels alone.
Which UK universities offer graduate entry medicine?
Around 20 UK universities offer dedicated graduate entry (A101) courses, including Warwick, Swansea, St George's, Nottingham, Southampton, Newcastle, Barts, Cambridge, Oxford, King's College London, Liverpool, Sheffield, ScotGEM (Dundee/St Andrews) and Cardiff, with newer entrants such as Surrey, the Pears Cumbria School of Medicine and Ulster. Provision changes most years, so always confirm directly with each medical school.
Do I need GAMSAT or UCAT for graduate entry medicine?
It depends on the university. GAMSAT schools include Nottingham, Cardiff, St George's, Liverpool and ScotGEM. UCAT schools include Warwick, Barts, Newcastle, King's College London and Sheffield. A few accept either test, and some international routes accept the MCAT. Check each medical school's requirements before booking, then prepare for whichever test most of your target schools use.
What grades do you need for graduate entry medicine?
Most GEM courses require at least a 2:1 in your undergraduate degree, and some prefer or require a first. Many do not have A-level requirements, so you can apply with weaker A-levels if your degree is strong. Some schools accept any degree subject, while others require a science or health-related degree, so check each one carefully.
Can I do graduate entry medicine with a non-science degree?
Yes, at many universities. Schools such as Warwick, Swansea, St George's, Nottingham, Southampton and Cambridge accept graduates from any degree background, science or non-science. Others, including King's College London, Liverpool, Oxford and Sheffield, require a science or health-related degree. Check the entry requirements for each school, as policies vary widely.
How long is graduate entry medicine?
The dedicated accelerated graduate entry course (A101) lasts four years. Graduates who instead join the standard medicine course (A100) study for five years. Both lead to the same medical qualification and the same Foundation Programme afterwards. The four-year route is more intensive, with an earlier and faster clinical focus, so it suits motivated graduates who can handle the pace.
How do I apply for graduate entry medicine?
You apply through UCAS, choosing up to four medical schools. The deadline is 6pm on 15 October for entry the following September. Unlike undergraduate medicine, you may apply to both Oxford and Cambridge for GEM in the same cycle. You will also need to sit the required admissions test (GAMSAT or UCAT) and arrange relevant work experience in good time.
Is graduate entry medicine harder to get into than undergraduate medicine?
Graduate entry is very competitive because there are far fewer places than for undergraduate medicine and a large pool of strong, motivated applicants. Each course typically has between roughly 15 and 200 places. A high admissions test score, a strong 2:1 or first, relevant work experience and a focused personal statement all matter. Applying strategically to schools that suit your profile improves your chances.
How much does graduate entry medicine cost?
On the accelerated four-year (A101) course, year-one tuition fees are £9,790 (2026/27 rate). You self-fund roughly the first £3,665 in year one and can borrow the rest from Student Finance England. From year two, the NHS Bursary contributes towards fees. There are also living costs, so budget for maintenance support. See our funding guide for a full year-by-year breakdown.
Do you get an NHS bursary for graduate entry medicine?
Yes. On an accelerated four-year course, the NHS Bursary scheme contributes towards your tuition fees from year two onwards, and provides a non-means-tested grant plus access to means-tested maintenance support. NHS Bursaries are only available to students ordinarily resident in England when their course began, and they are non-repayable. Confirm current rates on the NHSBSA website.
What is ScotGEM?
ScotGEM is a four-year graduate entry medicine course run by the University of Dundee and the University of St Andrews, with later years involving the University of the Highlands and Islands and NHS sites in rural Scotland. It uses the GAMSAT and focuses on generalist and rural medicine. Students on ScotGEM have their tuition fees fully funded, making it an attractive option for eligible applicants.
Can you transfer into medicine from another degree?
Yes, several UK universities run transfer schemes that let high-performing students move from a related degree (often biomedical science) into medicine after the first or final year. Examples include Anglia Ruskin, Bradford, Brighton and Sussex, Cardiff, Exeter, Leicester, Manchester, Newcastle, Plymouth, Queen Mary and St George's. These schemes are extremely competitive, so never rely on transfer as your only plan.
Can I study graduate entry medicine in London?
Yes. London GEM options include St George's, Barts (Queen Mary University of London) and King's College London, all of which run accelerated four-year courses, alongside graduate entry into standard courses at other London schools. Requirements vary: some use the UCAT and some the GAMSAT, and some require a science degree, so check each school's current entry criteria before applying.
Can graduates study medicine abroad?
Yes. Ireland offers four-year graduate entry medicine using the GAMSAT, and there are graduate routes across Europe. Studying abroad can widen your options if UK places are competitive, but check recognition and licensing carefully if you plan to practise in the UK afterwards. See our study medicine in Ireland and study medicine in Europe guides for details on entry requirements and fees.
How can I improve my chances of getting into GEM?
Maximise your admissions test score, secure a strong 2:1 or first, gather relevant clinical and caring work experience, and write a focused personal statement that explains your motivation to switch to medicine. Apply strategically to schools whose requirements match your test, degree subject and grades. Targeted tutoring and mock interviews can also strengthen weaker areas of your application.
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