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In Canada, medicine is a second degree: outside Quebec, medical schools admit applicants after at least two to four years of university, most entrants already hold a degree, and many require the MCAT. In the UK, medicine is a first degree. A Canadian student can apply in Grade 12, sit one aptitude test (the UCAT, not the MCAT), start a five or six-year medical degree at 18, and qualify as a doctor at about 23 or 24. That is why the questions Canadian families ask us are so consistent: do I need the MCAT, what Ontario or BC grades are enough, do Canadian student loans cover a UK degree, and can I keep the option of practising in Canada open?
This guide answers each of those for 2027 and 2028 entry: the Canadian offers UK medical schools publish, school by school; every UCAT test centre in Canada; the UCAS deadline in Eastern and Pacific time; fees in Canadian dollars and what the Canada Student Loans Program does and does not cover; and the honest position on practising in Canada as an international medical graduate, for families who want that option kept open.
At TheUKCATPeople we have supported international applicants to UK medical schools since 2012, including students from University of Toronto Schools, The Bishop Strachan School, Turner Fenton Secondary School, Regiopolis-Notre Dame, Collingwood School, Southridge School, Shawnigan Lake School and Rundle College. Our Ultimate Package for international students combines one-to-one mentoring with a UK doctor, UCAT tutoring, personal statement editing and interview coaching, all online and scheduled around Canadian time zones.

No to both. UK medicine is an undergraduate degree entered straight from high school, so a Canadian applies in Grade 12 and starts at 18. The admissions test is the UCAT, and UK schools do not accept the MCAT in its place: Glasgow, for example, states that it "will not consider any other medicine entry test (e.g. GAMSAT / MCAT) in lieu of the UCAT". The SAT and ACT are not needed either.
If you already hold a degree, a few schools publish a graduate offer for Canadians on the standard course (Edinburgh and Aberdeen both ask for a minimum GPA of 3.25 from a four-year degree), and the UK graduate-entry courses that admit international students use the GAMSAT or the UCAT, not the MCAT. For most Canadian families, though, the point of the UK route is that it saves the undergraduate degree altogether.
UK medical schools accept the Canadian high school diploma on its own; you do not need A Levels. Offers are written as a percentage average across your Grade 12 courses, usually the top five or six, with Chemistry compulsory and Biology, Mathematics or Physics alongside it. The table quotes what each school publishes for Canadian applicants to medicine, as we read it on 14 October 2026. Where a school has only a general Canada page, we say so, because several warn that medicine asks for more than the general figure.
Medical school | Published offer for Canadian applicants (checked 14 October 2026) |
|---|---|
St Andrews | Over 85% in Grade 11 to be considered for interview; offer of 85% overall in the top six Grade 12 subjects, with 90% in Chemistry and 90% in two of Biology, Mathematics or Physics. Ontario: 4U courses with no more than two 4M. Chemistry needed in Grade 11 and 12 |
Edinburgh | 85% overall in Grade 12, with higher grades in Chemistry and two of Biology, Mathematics or Physics; UCAT required. No separate English test needed at the 85% standard |
Glasgow | 85% overall in five Grade 12 subjects (six for Ontario and Quebec), no grade below 85%, including Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics or Physics |
Aberdeen | 80% average across five or six Grade 12 subjects, with Chemistry at 80% or more and two of Mathematics, Biology or Physics; or three APs at 5, 5, 4 including Chemistry |
Birmingham | Depends on the province; for Ontario, 85% overall in six Grade 12 U, U/C or M courses. Up to 28 places for international students |
Queen Mary (Barts) | 90% in each of six Grade 12 courses (4U or 4M) including Chemistry or Biology plus a further science; Quebec DEC at 90% |
Queen's University Belfast | 90% overall in six Grade 12 courses, with 90% in Chemistry and Biology; Mathematics, Physics and English expected to Grade 11. IB 36 with 6, 6, 6 at Higher Level |
Liverpool | 85% average with 80, 80, 80, 70, 70 in Grade 12 subjects including Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Mathematics and English; Ontario applicants offer six subjects (2026 entry guidelines; the 2027 version was not yet online) |
University of Lancashire | Ontario: 90% average across six Grade 12 subjects, at least four of them 4U, with 90% in Chemistry and one other science and 85% in Mathematics; Quebec: one or two years of CEGEP at 90% |
Exeter | General Canada page: 80% to 90% average across Grade 12, with 90% treated as A*AA, the medicine offer |
Sheffield | General Canada page: Ontario 87% across six Grade 12 U or M courses at the top band |
Imperial | General equivalence: 85% across Grade 12 including five subjects at 85%, with a warning that some courses ask for more |
Treat 85% as the floor, not the target. Two schools ask for 90% in every course, international places are a small fixed quota, and every offer is conditional on your final Grade 12 marks. Manchester and Bristol publish only general Canada pages (80% to 90%), and Manchester says its medicine course may differ, so email admissions before you spend a UCAS choice on them.
St Andrews runs a medicine route designed only for Canadian students who plan to practise in Canada (UCAS code A990, open to applicants with Canadian residency rights who pay international fees). You take a three-year BSc in medicine at St Andrews and then three clinical years at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an Edinburgh MBChB, and a partnership with the University of Alberta provides mentoring and residency guidance aimed at the Canadian match. For 2026 entry the UCAT threshold for A990 interviews was 1940. Other international students at St Andrews take A100 and complete their clinical years at Manchester. Older guides, including the previous version of this page, described it as a "Scottish-Canadian" programme with a choice of partner universities; that is no longer accurate.
Profiles of the schools Canadians apply to most: St Andrews, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Queen’s University Belfast, Exeter, Birmingham, Manchester, Bristol, King’s College London, Sheffield, Liverpool and Barts. Our UK medical school entry requirements guide lists the standard offer everywhere, the IB requirements for medicine guide covers every IB offer, the UK medical schools ranking hub compares them side by side, and the UK foundation medicine courses guide explains the few foundation routes open to international students. A Canadian who skipped a grade should also read our minimum age for medicine guide.
Most Canadian families weigh three options. The UK saves the undergraduate degree, costs international fees, and leaves you an IMG in Canada if you want to practise there straight after graduating. A Canadian degree first keeps you a Canadian graduate for the residency match, but you start medicine at about 22, the admissions odds are long, and many schools favour applicants from their own province. Ireland sits in between: its medical schools recruit North American students through a dedicated route, also at international fees, and its graduates are IMGs in Canada too.
If you are weighing Ireland, read our guide to studying medicine in Ireland, the Atlantic Bridge Programme page, which covers the single application route for students applying from Canada and the US, and the Irish medical school profiles. For Europe and further afield, see studying medicine abroad and our international students’ guide to UK medicine. Many Canadian applicants apply to the UK and Ireland in the same year and decide in the spring.
The UCAT is the admissions test for nearly every standard-entry medicine course in the UK, and Canadian applicants sit it at a Pearson VUE test centre in Canada. It is not the MCAT: there is no science content, no essay, and it is taken before you apply, in the summer between Grade 11 and Grade 12. You sit the UCAT (UK), not the UCAT ANZ, and you can sit it only once per cycle.
When we searched the UCAT test centre locator on 14 October 2026 it listed 37 centres in Canada, in eight provinces. Two gaps matter. There is no UCAT centre in Quebec, so Montreal students sit in Ottawa (about two hours by road) or across the US border in South Burlington, Vermont, and there is none in New Brunswick. Older guides, including the previous version of this page, listed Montreal: it is not on the current locator.
Province | UCAT test centres on the Pearson VUE locator (14 October 2026) |
|---|---|
Ontario | Toronto: Pearson Professional Centres Downtown (1235 Bay Street), Midtown (21 St. Clair Avenue East), East (2255 Sheppard Avenue East) and West (1 Eva Road); Canadian Systems Inc. (680 Rexdale Boulevard); Net Plus Computers, Scarborough (1891 Kennedy Road). Also Mississauga (SSCI, 3105 Dundas Street West), Oakville (1567 Michigan Drive), Hamilton (175 Longwood Road South), Kitchener (triOS College, 235 King Street East), London (395 Wellington Road South), Windsor (Xyna International School, 600 Ouellette Avenue), Sudbury (Cantcl Solutions, 450 Second Avenue), Thunder Bay (VBC Network, 106 North Cumberland Street) and Ottawa (11 Holland Avenue; Ottawa East, 1420 Blair Towers Place; Willis College, 1200 St Laurent Boulevard) |
British Columbia | Vancouver (505 Burrard Street, Bentall Centre; Ashton Testing Services, 1190 Melville Street), Burnaby (4400 Dominion Street), Surrey (15127 100 Avenue) and Victoria (818 Broughton Street) |
Alberta | Calgary Downtown (250 6th Avenue SW), Calgary East (433 Marlborough Way NE), Calgary Learning Institute (2616 18 Street NE), Edmonton (10055 106th Street NW) and Edmonton South (10430 61 Avenue NW) |
Manitoba | Winnipeg (287 Broadway; Winnipeg South, 1020 Lorimer Boulevard; Success Skills Centre, 393 Portage Avenue) |
Saskatchewan | Regina (2075 Prince of Wales Drive) and Saskatoon (201 1st Avenue South) |
Nova Scotia | Halifax (6960 Mumford Road; Clayton Park, 287 Lacewood Drive; Best Practices Consulting, 6436 Quinpool Road) |
Prince Edward Island | Charlottetown (Holland College, 305 Kent Street) |
Newfoundland and Labrador | St. John's (235 Water Street) |
Quebec, New Brunswick | No centre. Nearest: Ottawa, Halifax, Charlottetown, or Pearson VUE centres in the north-eastern US |
Not every centre offers UCAT appointments on every date, and the independent centres (the ones not called Pearson Professional Centres) tend to have fewer slots. Check availability inside your UCAT account once you have registered, and if you are in a smaller city, book the day booking opens.
Milestone | Date (UK time, with Eastern and Pacific time) |
|---|---|
Account registration opened | 20 May 2026 |
Booking opened | 23 June 2026 |
Testing window | 13 July to 24 September 2026 |
Booking deadline | 16 September 2026 at 15:00 UK time (10:00 Eastern, 07:00 Pacific) |
Results sent to universities | early November 2026 |
Fee for tests taken outside the UK | £115 (about C$220; UK centres £70) |
Reading this after September 2026? The 2026 testing window has closed, so if you have not sat the UCAT you are applying for 2028 entry. UCAT publishes the 2027 dates and registration instructions in March 2027, and the cycle is expected to follow the same shape: registration in May, booking in June, testing from July to late September 2027, UCAS deadline in mid-October 2027. For a Canadian student that means sitting the UCAT in the summer after Grade 11.
Since 2025 the UCAT has three scored cognitive subtests, Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning, each scaled from 300 to 900 for a total out of 2700, plus a Situational Judgement Test reported as Band 1 (highest) to Band 4. Abstract Reasoning was withdrawn in 2025, so ignore any advice built on the old 3600 scale. There is no negative marking, and the UCAT bursary is only open to UK candidates.
Start with the free UCAT Guides hub, practise under timed conditions on the UCAT online trainer, and use the UCAT registration guide for the booking steps. If you have been told about the BMAT, it was discontinued after its final sitting in 2023 and no UK medical school uses it; our free BMAT past papers are still useful problem-solving practice, but they are not a test you will sit.
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The 2026 mean total score was 1918 (Verbal Reasoning 602, Decision Making 640, Quantitative Reasoning 675), and the top 10 percent of candidates scored 2250 or above. The Situational Judgement Test bands were distributed 15 percent Band 1, 40 percent Band 2, 34 percent Band 3 and 11 percent Band 4.
International places at each UK medical school are a small fixed quota, so international applicants compete mainly against each other and a strong UCAT matters more, not less. As a rule of thumb, 2300 to 2500 makes you competitive at most schools that take international students, and above 2500 is competitive everywhere. Several schools use the SJT as a filter, so a Band 4 can rule you out regardless of your total. The adjustment most Canadian students find hardest is speed: Decision Making and Quantitative Reasoning reward timing strategy more than knowledge, and both need weeks of timed practice, not days.
Use the UCAT cut-off scores guide to see how each university uses the test, the UCAT score calculator to convert practice scores, the UCAT scores and scoring guide for deciles, and, if your score came in lower than you hoped, our guide to where to apply with a low UCAT score. All our UCAT tutors are UK doctors or top-decile medical students: explore 1-1 UCAT tutoring or our UCAT courses.
All applications to UK medical schools go through UCAS, exactly as they do for UK students. The key facts for 2027 entry:
For the personal statement, read our ultimate medicine personal statement guide and successful medicine personal statement examples, then have a UK doctor review your draft through our medicine personal statement review service. The UCAS medicine application guide and timeline walks through the whole form, and an EPQ-style research project or a strong AP or IB extended essay gives you something concrete to discuss at interview.
UK medical schools accept healthcare experience gained in Canada, and they do not expect you to fly to the UK for it; we advise against paying for UK work experience programmes. Hospital volunteering, shadowing a family doctor or specialist, long-term care or hospice volunteering and structured virtual placements all count. What matters is reflection: what you saw, what it taught you about patients and teams, and why it confirmed medicine. Our medicine work experience guide and Work Experience Finder can help you plan it.
A UK medical degree for an international student is a five or six-year investment, and the fee is fixed in pounds while the family budget is in Canadian dollars. The conversions below use £1 = about C$1.89 (the European Central Bank reference rates on 13 October 2026) and are rounded; check the live rate when you plan and budget with a buffer for a weaker dollar.
Published international tuition fees for the 2026/27 academic year at a sample of UK medical schools (2027/28 fees are published through the autumn and spring and are usually a few percent higher):
Medical school | International fee per year | Approximate C$ |
|---|---|---|
University of Manchester | £39,900 in years 1 and 2, £60,900 in the clinical years | C$75,300, then C$114,900 |
University of Liverpool | £50,000 | C$94,300 |
Imperial College London | £58,600 | C$110,500 |
University of Cambridge | £70,554 plus a college fee | C$133,100 plus the college fee |
Across all UK medical schools the 2026/27 range runs from about £30,150 a year (C$56,900) in the pre-clinical years at the cheapest schools to £70,554 (C$133,100) at Cambridge, with most clinical years between £45,000 and £60,000 (C$84,900 to C$113,200). Over a five or six-year course that is roughly C$370,000 to C$800,000 in tuition alone, before living costs of £12,000 to £18,000 a year (C$22,600 to C$34,000). See our school-by-school breakdown of UK medical school fees for international students to compare total course cost, not just the first year.
Other money you must plan for: the Student visa maintenance funds, the visa fee and the Immigration Health Surcharge, all set out in the visa section below.
Canadian student aid can be used at a UK university, but it covers a small fraction of the bill. The Canada Student Loans Program funds full-time study at a designated institution in Canada or abroad, for Canadian citizens, permanent residents and protected persons with assessed financial need; for 2026/27 the federal loan limit is C$300 a week of study, about C$10,000 to C$12,000 a year. Each province decides which schools are designated.
Against C$75,500 to C$132,100 a year in tuition, that is roughly 8 to 20 percent of the fee. Treat government aid as a contribution, plan the rest from family funds, and remember that UK medical schools offer almost no scholarships to international students.
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Canadian nationals do not need to prove their English for the Student visa: GOV.UK names Canada separately, alongside the majority English-speaking countries, as exempt. The university still sets its own English requirement for admission, and here schools differ. Exeter, Newcastle and Aberdeen exempt Canadian nationals from English test evidence, Queen’s University Belfast treats Canada as majority English-speaking for Canadian nationals, and Edinburgh does not ask for an English test from applicants who meet its 85% Grade 12 offer. Liverpool, by contrast, expects international applicants educated in English-speaking countries to take IELTS, at 7.0 in every component. Check each of your four schools.
So the common advice that Canadians must sit IELTS UKVI for medicine is wrong for most schools, but not all. Quote the school, never a single "medicine IELTS": our IELTS requirements for UK medical schools guide lists every school.
The Student visa itself, for a Canadian applying from Canada:
Most UK medical schools interview international applicants online, between November and March. Queen’s University Belfast interviews international fee-paying applicants online, Liverpool runs an equivalent online MMI for international applicants, Newcastle interviews international applicants on campus or remotely, St Andrews has interviewed overseas applicants online, and the University of Lancashire uses an asynchronous video MMI. A few schools still prefer in-person interviews, so check each of your four choices before you apply.
The time difference is the Canadian applicant’s particular problem, and it runs the opposite way to Asia. In the interview season the UK is five hours ahead of Toronto and eight hours ahead of Vancouver, so a 09:00 UK slot is 04:00 in Ontario and 01:00 in British Columbia. Ask for an afternoon UK slot where a school lets you choose, sleep on UK time for two nights beforehand if you cannot, and do at least one mock interview at the same hour as the real one. For one week a year the gap narrows by an hour: the UK leaves summer time on 25 October 2026, Canada on 1 November 2026.
Interviewers expect you to understand medicine in the UK. Learn how the NHS in England is structured, its six core values and the current NHS hot topics, and read UK health news for ten minutes a day. Then use your advantage: a Canadian can compare a single-payer, provincially run system with a tax-funded national one, wait times and family-doctor shortages included, in a way UK applicants cannot, and an ethics station rewards that kind of perspective. Prepare a clear answer to why medicine, and to "why the UK, not Canada?", which every Canadian is asked in some form.
Interview formats are covered in our MMI preparation guide, the ultimate medicine interview questions guide and the 280 practice interview questions, and you can practise with a UK doctor through our medicine interview coaching, mock interviews and medicine interview course. If you end up on a waiting list in the spring, read our guide to UCAS waiting lists and accepting an offer.
Yes, and the position for international graduates of UK medical schools improved in 2026. The Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 5 March 2026, defines a UK medical graduate as the holder of a UK primary medical qualification, excluding only those who spent all or most of their training outside the British Islands. An international student who completes the whole degree at a UK medical school is therefore in the prioritised group for Foundation Programme places, and NHS England has confirmed that from 2027 the prioritisation applies at both shortlisting and offer.
Immigration rules change frequently. Treat this as the position on 7 September 2026 and confirm on GOV.UK before you rely on it.
A UK medical degree leads to registration with the General Medical Council and the NHS Foundation Programme, where UK graduates now have priority under the Medical Training (Prioritisation) Act 2026, and most of our international students plan their careers in the UK. The facts below are for families who want the option of practising in Canada kept open.
The honest position is worth knowing before you finalise your choices. In Canada, a graduate of a medical school outside Canada is an international medical graduate (IMG), whatever their citizenship. A Canadian citizen with a UK MBChB is an IMG. CaRMS defines a Canadian medical graduate (CMG) as a graduate of a Canadian medical school, and from 1 July 2025 even graduates of US schools count as IMGs. That matters because Canadian residency positions are split into a CMG stream and a much smaller IMG stream.
To enter the CaRMS R-1 match from a UK medical school you need:
Since 26 January 2026 the Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada (LMCC) no longer requires 12 months of postgraduate training: a pass in the MCCQE, a source-verified degree from a qualifying school and the fees are enough. The LMCC is a credential, not a licence; you still need a Canadian residency and provincial registration to practise.
2026 CaRMS R-1 match (published 5 May 2026) | Figure |
|---|---|
IMG participants (both iterations) | 1,891 |
IMGs matched, first iteration | 800 of 1,494 (about 54%) |
IMGs who graduated that year, first iteration | 212 matched, 80.6% |
IMGs who graduated in earlier years, first iteration | 588 matched, 47.8% |
Canadian graduates of that year, first iteration | 2,780 matched, 92.8% |
IMGs matched across both iterations | 931 (851 in 2025, 671 in 2024) |
First-iteration IMG positions | 480 before reversions (260 of them family medicine), 729 after unfilled CMG family medicine places moved across |
Read those numbers carefully. IMG positions are growing, most of them are in family medicine, and an IMG who applies in their graduating year does far better than one who applies years later. But an IMG position usually comes with return of service: Ontario asks for 7,200 clinical hours (at least 120 a month) in a community outside Ottawa and the Toronto area; British Columbia two years for family medicine and three for other specialties; Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Maritime provinces (through Dalhousie) and Newfoundland and Labrador also attach return-of-service terms; Alberta states that it has no provincial return-of-service requirement. Ontario’s 2025 rule requiring two years of Ontario high school for IMG positions was rescinded on 23 March 2026, and CaRMS confirmed in July 2026 that no new IMG eligibility requirements apply for the 2027 match.
The route that has opened up most since 2023 is to complete UK training first. Several provinces now license doctors who finished postgraduate training in an approved jurisdiction, and the UK is on the list. In Ontario, family doctors trained in the UK (GP training plus MRCGP, which the College of Family Physicians of Canada recognises) can receive a certificate for independent practice without further assessment. Alberta’s Approved Jurisdiction Route, in force since 9 June 2025, puts UK-trained family doctors straight onto the general register. British Columbia’s new bylaws, effective 6 July 2026, create a full-licence route for UK-trained family doctors and a route for specialists with a UK Certificate of Completion of Training, followed by Royal College certification. Nova Scotia gives doctors on the GMC’s GP or Specialist Register a defined licence after six months of supervision.
All of these need completed UK specialty or GP training, which means the two-year Foundation Programme plus three years or more of GP training, or longer for other specialties. They suit a doctor building a career in the NHS who wants Canada kept open for later. The rules are moving quickly, so check the provincial college’s current page before you rely on any of them.
Our advice to Canadian families: Foundation training in the UK is the natural next step after a UK degree, and if you would be happy to train in the UK and decide later, the approved-jurisdiction routes keep Canada open far more than they did five years ago. If practising in Canada straight after graduation is the only acceptable outcome, take the IMG match seriously before you choose the UK, and favour schools that support it, such as the St Andrews A990 route.
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Work backwards from the UCAS deadline. The plan below is for a student entering in September 2028, who is in Grade 11 in 2026/27; a Grade 12 student applying now for 2027 entry is at the October step.
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We have coached Canadian applicants from public and independent schools across the country, including students from University of Toronto Schools, The Bishop Strachan School, Turner Fenton Secondary School, Regiopolis-Notre Dame, Collingwood School, Southridge School, Shawnigan Lake School and Rundle College. What makes the difference for Canadian applicants is consistent: a UCAT sat in the summer after Grade 11 with real timed practice behind it, a shortlist of four schools that publish an offer for your province or your APs, a reference that translates Canadian marks for UK admissions tutors, and interview practice with someone who knows both the NHS and the Canadian system.
Everything we do is online. Most Canadian students take lessons after school in Eastern time, which is the UK evening, and Pacific families often prefer weekends. Lessons run seven days a week, so a hockey season, AP exams or a part-time job can all be worked around.
Our Ultimate Package for international applicants includes:
"Applying to UK medical schools from Canada felt overwhelming at first because there were so many differences compared with applications here. I thought the UK would be a better option for us as the Canadian system is so tough now. My doctor mentor explained every stage clearly, from UCAT preparation through to interviews. The university selection advice was brilliant and helped me avoid applying to places that weren't a good fit. I ended up with three interviews and two offers including my dream uni at St Andrews. I genuinely couldn't have done it without the team." Sarah Chen, Canada
"The system is so different here compared to Canada. Katie helped me bridge that gap, especially regarding the NHS structure. 20 hours gave us time to go deep." Isabella Ross, Toronto
Compare the Silver, Gold and Platinum tiers on our Ultimate Packages page, see the international students’ package page, or start with 20 hours of UCAT tutoring if the test is your immediate priority. For the bigger picture, our Oxbridge medicine mentoring programme covers Oxford and Cambridge, and the TheUKCATPeople home page has everything else we do.
If you want support with any part of the process, our team of UK doctors and admissions experts is here to help. Book a free strategy consultation or contact us.
No. UK undergraduate medicine is entered straight from high school, and the admissions test is the UCAT, sat in the summer after Grade 11. The MCAT is not required for any standard five or six-year UK medical degree. Glasgow, for example, says it will not consider the MCAT or GAMSAT in place of the UCAT. The graduate-entry courses open to international students use the GAMSAT or the UCAT.
No. Unlike Canada, where medical schools outside Quebec admit applicants after two to four years of university, UK medical schools admit students directly from Grade 12 into a five or six-year degree. You graduate with a primary medical qualification (MBChB, MBBS or equivalent) at about 23 or 24. Canadians who already hold a degree can also apply to four-year graduate-entry courses, which are fewer and very competitive for international applicants.
Most UK medical schools that publish a Canadian offer ask for an average of 85% to 90% across six Grade 12 U or M courses, with Chemistry compulsory and Biology, Mathematics or Physics alongside it. Birmingham, Edinburgh and Glasgow ask for 85% (Glasgow with no course below 85%), St Andrews 85% overall with 90% in Chemistry and two other sciences, and Queen’s University Belfast and Barts 90%. Treat 85% as the floor: offers are conditional on final Grade 12 marks, and international places are few.
The IB is accepted everywhere, typically at 36 to 40 points with 6s and 7s in Higher Level Chemistry and Biology. AP is usually listed under US requirements; Aberdeen is the one school we found that names an AP route for Canadians (three APs at 5, 5, 4 including Chemistry), so APs are best used to strengthen a diploma application. From Quebec, Secondary V alone is not enough: Barts asks for the DEC at 90%, the University of Lancashire for one or two years of CEGEP at 90%, and other schools should be asked directly.
A route at St Andrews designed only for Canadian students who plan to practise in Canada. You take a three-year BSc in medicine at St Andrews, then three clinical years at the University of Edinburgh, graduating with an MBChB, with mentoring and residency guidance through a partnership with the University of Alberta. It is open to applicants with Canadian residency rights who pay international fees, and for 2026 entry its UCAT interview threshold was 1940.
Yes, but as an international medical graduate (IMG), even if you are a Canadian citizen. One route is to enter the CaRMS residency match from the UK, which needs the MCCQE and the NAC examination and usually means competing for IMG-stream positions with return-of-service terms. The other is to complete GP or specialty training in the UK first: since 2023 Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia and Nova Scotia have opened routes that license UK-trained family doctors (and in some provinces specialists) without repeating Canadian residency.
In the 2026 CaRMS match, 931 IMGs matched across both iterations out of 1,891 IMG participants, against a 92.8% first-iteration match rate for that year’s Canadian graduates. IMGs applying in their graduating year did much better (80.6% in the first iteration) than those applying in later years (47.8%). Most IMG positions are in family medicine, and most provinces attach return of service, for example 7,200 clinical hours outside Ottawa and the Toronto area in Ontario.
Partly. The Canada Student Loans Program funds full-time study at designated schools abroad, at up to C$300 a week of study in 2026/27, and OSAP’s 2026/27 approved list includes Edinburgh, Glasgow, Queen’s University Belfast, King’s College London, Manchester, St Andrews, Exeter, Imperial and UCL among others. That comes to roughly C$10,000 to C$12,000 a year, about 8 to 20 percent of international tuition. Each province designates schools separately, so check your province’s list for each of your choices.
Published 2026/27 international fees range from about £30,150 a year in the pre-clinical years at the cheapest schools to £70,554 a year at Cambridge, with most clinical years between £45,000 and £60,000, before living costs of £12,000 to £18,000 a year. At about C$1.89 to the pound that is roughly C$56,900 to C$133,100 a year in tuition, or C$370,000 to C$800,000 over the course. You must also show visa maintenance funds of £1,171 a month outside London or £1,529 a month in London for up to nine months.
Usually not. Canadian nationals are exempt from proving English for the Student visa, and several medical schools, including Exeter, Newcastle, Aberdeen and Queen’s University Belfast, accept Canadian nationality as evidence of English. Edinburgh does not ask for a test from applicants who meet its Grade 12 offer. Liverpool is the exception we found: it expects international applicants to take IELTS at 7.0 in every component. Check each of your four schools.
At a Pearson VUE test centre, booked through your UCAT account. On 14 October 2026 the locator listed 37 centres in Canada: in Toronto and the Greater Toronto Area, Ottawa, Hamilton, Kitchener, London, Windsor, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Victoria, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon, Halifax, Charlottetown and St. John’s. There is no centre in Quebec or New Brunswick, so Montreal students usually sit in Ottawa. The fee outside the UK is £115, and UCAT publishes the 2027 dates in March 2027.
For 2027 entry it is 15 October 2026 at 18:00 UK time, which is 13:00 Eastern, 12:00 Central, 11:00 Mountain and 10:00 Pacific on the same day. It falls in the school day, so aim to submit at least a day early. The deadline for 2028 entry will be in mid-October 2027.
For UK medical schools, 2300 to 2500 is competitive at most schools that take international students and above 2500 is competitive everywhere; the 2026 mean was 1918 and the top 10 percent scored 2250 or above. A Band 1 or 2 in the Situational Judgement Test matters too, because some schools use it as a filter. Ignore any figure quoted on the old 3600 scale.
Yes. UK medical schools accept healthcare experience gained in Canada, such as hospital volunteering, shadowing, long-term care or hospice work and virtual placements, and they do not expect international applicants to travel to the UK for it. What matters is what you reflect on: even one or two weeks can show insight into patient care and the realities of a medical career.
Mostly, yes. Queen’s University Belfast and Liverpool interview international applicants online, Newcastle on campus or remotely, and the University of Lancashire uses an asynchronous video MMI; a few schools prefer in-person interviews, so check each choice. Live online interviews run on UK time, which in winter is five hours ahead of Toronto and eight ahead of Vancouver, so a morning UK slot can mean a 04:00 start in Ontario. Practise at the same hour beforehand.
It is different rather than easy. Canadian medical schools admit after university, have few seats for many applicants, and many give preference to residents of their own province. UK schools admit straight from high school, but international places are a small fixed quota and you still need top grades, a strong UCAT and good interviews. The real trade-off comes after graduation: a UK degree is an international medical graduate degree in Canada, so for families who want to practise in Canada, getting licensed there is harder than getting in.

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