Medicine at the Black Country Medical School, University of Wolverhampton (MBChB)

The Black Country Medical School (BCMS) is a new medical school at the University of Wolverhampton, based at the City Campus in Wolverhampton. Its first MBChB cohort starts on 13 September 2027. The five year course was developed in partnership with Aston University, and you meet patients from the first year on placements in primary care, community settings and NHS hospitals across Wolverhampton and the wider West Midlands, led by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust.

Eligibility note: for 2027 entry the MBChB is open to international students only. There are 50 places, and you apply directly to the university rather than through UCAS. Applications open in September 2026 for the September 2027 intake. If you are applying from outside the UK, start with our guide for international applicants.

As a new school, BCMS is working through the General Medical Council quality assurance process that ends in approval for the University of Wolverhampton to award a Primary Medical Qualification. Every new UK medical school also names a contingency partner, a standard safeguard so students could continue their studies if something went wrong. Wolverhampton’s contingency partner is Aston University. Always confirm the latest position on the official course page before you apply.

BCMS is built around what it calls a human condition curriculum, which sets the science of medicine alongside the lives of the people it treats. Four themes run through the whole degree: Life Path (birth, growth, maturity and death), Healthy Living, Healthy Emotions and Human Interactions.

• Patient contact from Year 1 in primary care and community settings, before hospital placements build from Year 3.
• Purpose built teaching facilities at the City Campus, including digital 3D anatomy tables, clinical skills suites and high fidelity simulation.
• A curriculum, innovation and quality assurance partnership with Aston Medical School, and placements led by The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, a relationship of more than two decades.
• Case based and small group learning, a compassionate communication course, and interprofessional learning with other health and care students.
• An MBChB Student Success Coach for pastoral and academic support, and a guaranteed place in university owned accommodation in first year.
• A stated mission to reduce health inequality in the Black Country and the West Midlands, one of the most diverse and most medically underserved regions in England.

The MBChB runs for five years in two phases. The first builds the scientific foundations of how the body works and how disease develops; the second applies that knowledge in clinical placements of increasing responsibility. Each year is a single 120 credit core module.

• Years 1 and 2, Fundamentals of Medicine 1 and 2: integrated biomedical, social and behavioural science across cardiovascular, respiratory and blood, musculoskeletal, central nervous system and mental health, endocrine and reproduction, gastrointestinal and renal, public and global health, with clinical skills, ethics and law, and primary care placements from the first two terms.
• Year 3, Clinical Practice 1: integrated medicine and surgery placements plus primary care, consultation skills and practical procedures, and a Student Selected Component.
• Year 4, Clinical Practice 2: child health, psychiatry, integrated care, cancer care, neurology and senses, and obstetrics and gynaecology, drawn from the core content of the national Medical Licensing Assessment.
• Year 5, Advanced Clinical Practice: acute medicine, surgery, intensive care, emergency medicine and primary care, an assistantship, and an elective as the Student Selected Component.

On graduation you hold a Primary Medical Qualification recognised by the General Medical Council, and you can apply for provisional registration and Year 1 of the UK Foundation Programme.

Universities revise entry requirements between cycles, usually in August and September. Always confirm with the university before you apply.

Compare this with the A-level requirements for every UK medical school.

Still sitting your GCSEs? Protect the grades this course screens for with 1-1 GCSE Maths, Biology and Chemistry tutoring from medics.

See A-Level & GCSE resit policies for every UK medical school →

Clinical work experience is not mandatory. The school says it understands that healthcare work experience is difficult for some candidates to arrange, but it does expect applicants to have explored the online work experience opportunities that are available. Virtual placements and structured online programmes count here, and they give you something concrete to reflect on at interview.

The personal statement is not scored and is not used to rank applicants. It can be drawn on during the Multiple Mini Interviews, so it still needs to hold up to questioning: anything you claim in it may be picked apart by an interviewer. Our medicine personal statement service covers how to write one that survives that.

See our medicine personal statement examples: model statements in the new UCAS format, each with commentary on what works and why.

No. There is no separate graduate entry programme at Wolverhampton. Graduates apply to the standard five year MBChB, must meet both the degree and the A-level and GCSE requirements, and complete all five years.

Selection is by Multiple Mini Interview, conducted online. The stations are designed to assess communication skills, empathy, critical thinking, and how well you align with NHS values and the General Medical Council’s expectations of a medical student.

Because the personal statement is not scored, the MMI and your UCAT total are what decide the outcome. Our medicine interview tutoring runs MMI circuits in the same online format.

Comparing this against your other choices? Every UK medical school's interview window is in one table, checked against each university's own website, in our UK medical school interview dates guide.

Prepare with 1-1 medicine interview coaching and practise with our medicine interview questions guide.

International Admissions: InternationalAdmissions@wlv.ac.uk. University switchboard: 01902 32 22 22. Official course page: wlv.ac.uk MBChB Medicine. School page: Black Country Medical School.

Official website →