51 medical schools and 18 dental schools, with what each one says about contextual admissions in its own words, the official page it was read from, and the date it was checked. 51 of the 69 rows carry a verified adjustment. Nothing here is taken from an aggregator, and nothing is inferred from a comparable university.
Written by Dr Akash Gandhi, NHS GP and founder of TheUKCATPeople. Updated 16 September 2026.
Contextual admissions is a university reading an application against the circumstances in which the grades were earned, rather than against the grades alone. Every UK medical and dental school gathers some contextual data, because they are required to report on access, but what they do with it differs so widely that the phrase on its own tells a teacher almost nothing. Two schools can both say they practise contextual admissions while one lowers its offer by two grades and the other changes nothing about the offer at all.
That variation is the reason this page exists as a table rather than an explainer. A careers lead advising a student on where to spend one of four choices needs the specific school's specific wording, and needs to be able to open the page it came from. Generic summaries of contextual admissions are abundant and, for this purpose, worthless.
Almost every conversation about contextual offers is about grades. For a large share of applicants the other two matter more.
The best known and the least universal. A school publishes a standard offer and a contextual one, commonly one or two grades below: AAB rather than AAA, or ABB where a named access programme has been completed. The size varies far more than teachers expect, and several schools that advertise a generous university-wide reduction give medicine and dentistry a smaller one, or none at all.
Often worth more than the grades, and almost never discussed. Some schools review contextual applicants' admissions test scores against a separate, lower threshold. Others add points to a selection score, or rank contextual applicants in their own pool rather than against the whole field. A student who would miss the interview cut on raw score can clear it on the contextual one.
Completing a named outreach programme frequently buys a guaranteed interview, conditional on meeting academic and test minimums. Separately, many schools run a gateway or foundation year: a longer degree with a much lower entry requirement, with progression into year one on completion. That is a different application, usually a different UCAS code, and it is the route a strong student with weak grades is most often eligible for and never told about.
The difference between a university saying no and a university saying nothing decides whether an email to admissions is worth sending.
Every row was read from the university's own page and verified on 16 September 2026. Open the source link before advising a student: policies change each cycle.
| University | Contextual offer | Who it applies to, in the university's words | What changes | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Anglia Ruskin UniversitySeparate widening-access route: Medicine with Gateway Year (A101), six years | Yes |
| Reduced offer of ABB against a standard AAA, and a 5% uplift to the applicant's UCAT score. Resit concessions are also reduced.Anglia Ruskin places medicine outside its standard contextual offer policy and covers it by the Widening Access to Medicine Scheme instead. The UCAT uplift is unusual and is quoted as published. | Anglia Ruskin medicine course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Aston University | Yes |
| Contextual offer of AAB with grades AA in Chemistry and Biology, against a standard A*AA. Aston states it aims to offer up to 40% of its UK places to students meeting specified widening participation criteria.Independent school applicants are excluded; state grammar school applicants are eligible. The criteria list sits on Aston's separate Aston Ready page, so the two pages must be read together. | Aston MBChB course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Bangor UniversitySeparate widening-access route: Gateway to Medicine (six year) BMBS, A103 | Yes |
| Contextual offer of AAB with compulsory sciences at grade A, against a standard AAA. No UCAT adjustment: there is no specific cut-off score, and eligible applicants are ranked by UCAT with the highest scores invited to interview until slots are filled.The Welsh language GCSE route is unusual and specific to Bangor. The gateway course exists, but its own eligibility wording could not be read because that page renders its content with client-side JavaScript, so confirm the gateway criteria with the school. | North Wales Medical School FAQsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Brighton and Sussex Medical School | Yes |
| Adjusted offer of AAB including Biology or Chemistry and one further science, against a standard AAA, with GCSE English and maths accepted at grade 5 or C. Applicants with adjusted offers are ranked separately from the wider pool, and BSMS aims to reserve 30% of interviews for applicants with contextual data. Care leavers are automatically invited to interview.A single flag is not enough: BSMS requires at least one criterion from three different sections. Care leavers are the exception. | BSMS entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Brunel University of London | Yes |
| A 5% uplift to the UCAT score for applicants meeting one of the criteria, which is the quantified part. Brunel also states it makes lower graded A level offers to contextual applicants who are successful after the virtual MMI, but the level of that reduction is not published. Applies to home fee applicants only.Standard offer is AAA. The policy nowhere states the reduced grade profile, only that lower offers are made, so the UCAT uplift is the only figure a student can plan around. | Brunel admissions policy (PDF)Checked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Cardiff University | Yes |
| Not a grade reduction. Contextual applicants are given additional consideration in the scoring and selection process used to decide who is invited to interview. Applicants who have taken part in Step Up, Doctoriaid Yfory or the Sutton Trust programme are given a guaranteed interview. The school of medicine also recognises Welsh-domiciled applicants as a contextualised group.For medicine and dentistry only Cardiff's own widening participation activities count; other institutions' Sutton Trust pathways are listed as excluding applicants to medicine and dentistry. The generic course-page wording about a lower offer does not apply to A100. | Cardiff contextual dataChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| City St George's, University of London | Yes |
| An offer two grades lower than the standard conditional offer, even where predicted grades are higher, applied across two subjects rather than reducing one subject by two grades. AAA becomes ABB. Medicine MBBS five-year is on the eligible courses list; graduate entry medicine is treated separately.Two campus schemes coexist after the merger. Medicine falls under the Tooting (legacy St George's) scheme, so the Clerkenwell tariff-point rules do not apply to it. A third group, including service children and Gypsy, Roma and Traveller communities, gets support but explicitly not a contextual offer. | City St George's contextual admissionsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Edge Hill UniversitySeparate widening-access route: MBChB Medicine with Foundation Year (A110), BBB including Biology and Chemistry | Yes |
| A UCAT adjustment only: the UCAT threshold is extended for candidates meeting the widening participation criteria or completing the Widening Access to Medicine Programme. The size of the extension is not published. The A100 grade requirement stays at AAA including Biology and Chemistry, with no contextual reduction.The widening participation route here is the separate six-year course, not a lower offer on A100. Any candidate scoring in SJT band 4 is automatically rejected. | Edge Hill medicine course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Hull York Medical SchoolSeparate widening-access route: MB BS Medicine with a Gateway Year | Yes |
| Up to 15 additional selection points at interview stage, a fast track to interview for the five-year A100, and a reduced offer of AAB including Biology, Chemistry and a third subject against the standard AAA.The contextual points apply to standard applicants only, not to graduates or to anyone who has previously started a university course. | Hull York contextual admissionsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Imperial College London | Yes |
| Guaranteed minimum offer, guaranteed interview, extra support, and a reduced minimum threshold for GAMSAT and UCAT. For 2026 entry the UCAT minimum threshold was a total score of 2320 for home applicants against 2170 for widening participation applicants, with SJT band 3 the minimum for both.The UCAT thresholds are re-set annually and were published for 2026 entry. The size of the guaranteed minimum offer is not quantified for medicine. | Imperial admissions schemesChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Keele UniversitySeparate widening-access route: Health Foundation Year for Medicine (A104) | Yes |
| Medicine sits in the healthcare subjects group, giving a reduction of one full grade against the standard offer. Completing Steps2Medicine or UKWPMED instead gives an automatic interview, if GCSE and minimum UCAT thresholds are met, and a reduction of three full grades, so A*AA becomes ABB. Additional UCAT points are available for applicants meeting the adjusted offer criteria, attending a school in the Keele region, or receiving a UCAT bursary.The two routes must not be conflated: the standard contextual reduction is one grade, the named programme route is three. | Keele contextual and alternative offersChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Kent and Medway Medical School | Yes |
| The A level offer for successful pre A level applicants is set by the average attainment of their current school, giving either AAA or AAB in any order. Post A level applicants are not affected and their requirement is AAB. No contextual UCAT reduction is stated.Unusual in applying contextualisation to everyone rather than to a flagged group. The University of Kent's own contextual policy does not cover medicine; KMMS operates its own arrangement. Widely repeated third-party claims of a BBB offer for Kent, Medway and East Sussex postcodes appear nowhere on the school's own pages. | KMMS entry requirements, 2027Checked 16 Sept 2026 |
| King's College LondonSeparate widening-access route: Extended Medical Degree Programme MBBS (A101), six years, offer ABB | No | Not stated | No contextual offer for A100. King's states that students applying for its MBBS courses are not eligible for contextual offers, and that applicants eligible for contextualised admissions should consider the Extended Medical Degree Programme instead. Contextual information is still read to gain a more complete picture of each application.King's university-wide policy offers up to two A level grades lower. That reduction does not apply to medicine, and quoting it to a student would be wrong. | King's contextualised admissionsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Lancaster UniversitySeparate widening-access route: MBChB Medicine and Surgery with a Gateway Year (A104) | Yes |
| Candidates successful at interview may be considered for a contextually lowered offer of ABB, against a standard AAB. Borderline candidates meeting the widening participation criteria may be invited to interview using a lower overall UCAT threshold.Lancaster's university-wide contextual offer scheme excludes medicine by name and points to this separate medical school scheme. | Lancaster medicine entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Newcastle University | Yes |
| PARTNERS offer of ABB, a two-grade reduction against a typical AAA, plus successful completion of the Summer School or PASS. Contextual applicants may have lower academic screen or offer thresholds, and for A100 home applicants standard applicants are ranked separately from contextual ones. A separate PARTNERS application must be submitted alongside the UCAS form.Medicine and dentistry get a two-grade reduction where PARTNERS gives three grades on other courses. Graduate applicants are ineligible. | Newcastle PARTNERS lower offerChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Pears Cumbria School of Medicine | Yes |
| A lower admissions test threshold, published as numbers for 2026 entry: a UCAT threshold of 1910 for contextual applicants against 1960 for home applicants, and a GAMSAT threshold of 53 against 59. The Imperial scheme also offers a guaranteed interview and a guaranteed minimum offer.The four-year graduate programme has no GCSE or A level requirements at all, stated as a widening access measure, and takes home fee status applicants only. The criteria themselves live on Imperial's site, which Pears Cumbria links to. | Pears Cumbria study pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Queen Mary University of London (Barts) | Yes |
| One grade drop for medicine, dentistry and law, against up to two grades (or three enhanced) elsewhere in the university. Enhanced offers for these courses are AAA plus a guaranteed interview, or AAB for care leavers, subject to GCSE requirements and UCAT thresholds.The A100 course-level selection criteria page says nothing about contextual admissions, so the one-grade figure rests on the university-wide page and the 2026 admissions policy. | Queen Mary contextualised admissionsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Queen's University Belfast | Yes |
| Northern Ireland school applicants are shortlisted on AS-level grades rather than GCSE performance, plus UCAT and predicted A-level performance. POP SMDBS pathway students receive a guaranteed interview and a possible offer of one A level grade below the normal target. Other POP pathways give a guaranteed interview only.The grade reduction is worded as a possible offer, not a guaranteed one. Policy read is the 2026-entry statement. | QUB medicine admissions policy (PDF)Checked 16 Sept 2026 |
| St Mary's University, Twickenham | No | Not stated | No contextual offer available on the current intake. The admissions policy names contextual indicators for medicine, including care experienced status, the UCAT bursary, first in family, school performance measures and accredited widening participation programmes such as UKWPMED, but confines them to home applicants. The MBBS currently accepts applications from international students only, so no applicant to this intake can be contextually flagged.The level of adjustment is not published in any case. If home places are allocated in a future cycle, this row needs re-reading rather than carrying forward. | St Mary's admissions policyChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Swansea University | Not stated |
| Not stated for graduate entry medicine. Swansea's contextual offer policy, which it describes as set by Health Education Improvement Wales, lists healthcare sciences, midwifery, nursing, occupational therapy and operating department practice, and does not include medicine. The graduate entry course page states standard requirements only. Swansea's separate Pathways to Medicine undergraduate degrees give a guaranteed interview on attainment grounds rather than a deprivation flag.Recorded as not stated rather than no: Swansea publishes a contextual policy, but graduate entry medicine is simply absent from it and the course page is silent. | Swansea widening accessChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| The University of Edinburgh | Yes |
| Plus Flag candidates are expected to meet the minimum entry requirement rather than the standard one: AAABB by end of S5 and CC at Advanced Higher, or AAB at A level in one sitting, or 34 IB points with 655 at higher level, against AAAAB and BB, AAA, or 38 points with 666. Flag applicants are considered on standard requirements but in most cases prioritised. For 2026 entry an additional 25 places were available for applicants living in SIMD20 areas.No UCAT threshold reduction is published; the adjustment is academic plus prioritisation. The policy expressly excludes graduate applicants to undergraduate medicine. | Edinburgh MBChB entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Ulster University | Not stated | Not stated | Nothing published. Neither the graduate entry medicine course page nor the university-wide entrance requirements page mentions contextual admissions, widening access, deprivation measures or an access scheme. Ulster's institutional widening access plans describe target groups defined by the Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure, but state no admissions adjustment for medicine.A genuine absence rather than an unreadable page: the full rendered course page was searched, including the lazy-loaded entry conditions sections. | Ulster medicine course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University College London (UCL) | Yes |
| Contextual A level offer of AAB with AA in Biology and Chemistry, against a standard A*AA with A*A in Chemistry and Biology. Access UCL applicants are automatically flagged and their UCAT scores reviewed separately: for 2026 entry the minimum total invited to interview was 2080 for Access UCL against 2190 for home applicants.UCL states explicitly that Access UCL is not a guaranteed offer scheme, and that its eligibility criteria and datasets may change for the 2027 cycle. The UCAT thresholds are re-set annually. | UCL MBBS course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of AberdeenSeparate widening-access route: Gateway2Medicine (A1A1), with North East Scotland College | Yes |
| Reduced minimum academic requirement of AAAB at Higher in S5 including Chemistry plus two from Biology, Physics or maths, or AAB at A level including Chemistry plus one from Biology, Physics or maths, against a standard AAAAB at Higher. A 10% UCAT uplift for SIMD20 and care experienced school leavers, and a 5% uplift for SIMD40 school leavers. Scottish domiciled applicants meeting the minimum academic requirements with a UCAT score in the top 75% are guaranteed an interview.Figures on that page are labelled 2027 entry. It is not explicit whether the UCAT uplift applies to applicants who are not school leavers. | Aberdeen medicine widening accessChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Birmingham | Yes |
| Contextual offer of AAB against a standard AAA, irrespective of POLAR4 quintile. Pathways to Birmingham gives an alternative offer of ABB including Chemistry and one of Biology, Physics or maths. UKWPMED gives an automatic interview and, if successful, a reduced offer currently ABB. Contextual data is also 15% of the overall application score for interview selection, alongside academic at 45% and UCAT at 40%.Three routes overlap here and the entry requirements page does not name UKWPMED, which is medicine A100 only. Birmingham states the UKWPMED benefits are contingent on firmly accepting the offer. | Birmingham medicine entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of BristolSeparate widening-access route: MB ChB Gateway to Medicine, with automatic progression to the five-year course | Yes |
| Contextual A level offer of ABB, including an A in Chemistry and a B in one of Biology, physics or maths, against a standard AAA. Separately, applicants eligible for the guaranteed offer scheme who apply to a course that interviews as standard are guaranteed an invitation to interview, but not an offer, provided they sit the UCAT and score above the threshold.Bristol runs two linked but separate schemes: the contextual offer is the grade reduction, the guaranteed offer scheme is the interview invitation, and their eligibility lists differ. | Bristol MB ChB course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Buckingham | No | Not stated | No contextual offer. The faculty's admissions standards state that the university uses the contextual data provided by UCAS for reporting purposes, to monitor its access and participation strategy, but that this data is not used when considering individual applications.The clearest statement of its kind in this table. Buckingham's Pre-Med route is a fee-paying pre-medical course used as an entry qualification, not a widening access gateway. | Buckingham standards for admission and selectionChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Cambridge | No |
| No lower-grade offer. Cambridge states it does not use contextual data to systematically make conditional offers at lower grades, or to make allowances for a poor academic record. Flagged applications get particularly careful attention at the initial application stage and in the pooling stages, and some flags decide eligibility for the August Reconsideration Pool.The page is university-wide and does not mention medicine. It rules out systematic lower-grade offers across every course. | Cambridge contextual dataChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Chester | Not stated |
| Nothing published for graduate entry medicine. The university-wide policy lowers entry requirements by one or two grades, offers an alternative pathway such as a foundation year, or invites the applicant to interview, but it is restricted to the first year of an undergraduate degree and the medicine course page is silent.The university-wide policy lists no excluded courses, so it is unclear whether it reaches graduate entry medicine at all. A grade reduction does not map onto a degree-class offer. Worth an email to admissions. | Chester entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of DundeeSeparate widening-access route: Medicine, Gateway to Medicine MBChB, one year, Scottish residents | Yes |
| Widening access Higher offer of AAABB against a standard AAAAB. Eligible applicants receive a widening access level offer or, for interviewing subjects, are normally interviewed. Dundee sets no minimum UCAT cut-off. Evidence of circumstances is due within a week of the 15 October UCAS deadline.Only Scottish Higher grades are published for the widening access route; no A level equivalent is shown. The Access Summer School is explicitly not available to medicine applicants. | Dundee medicine entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of East Anglia (Norwich)Separate widening-access route: MBBS Medicine with a Gateway Year (A104), with its own contextual criteria | No | Not stated | No contextual offer. UEA states its MBBS medicine courses (A100 and A101) do not use contextual data as part of the screening processes, and both, along with the gateway year course, appear in the scheme's course exceptions list. Applicants who complete the UEA Preparing for Medicine Programme and meet the academic requirements are guaranteed an interview, which is a scheme benefit rather than a grade adjustment.UEA routes widening access through the separate gateway year course rather than through a lower offer on the standard course. The gateway criteria include IMD 1 to 3, the UCAT bursary, free school meals, and care or estrangement. | UEA contextual admissionsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Exeter | Yes |
| Contextual offer of AAB against a typical A*AA for 2027 entry, with Biology and Chemistry still required at grade A. In IB terms 34 with 665 against 38 with 766. Because medicine carries subject requirements, the published medicine figure is a two-grade reduction rather than the three-grade category.Exeter's own page warns that where programmes have specific subject requirements the grade adjustment may differ from the headline categories. A footnote on the course page is stale and refers to an earlier cycle, though the published figure is on the 2027-entry page. | Exeter BMBS course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of GlasgowSeparate widening-access route: Gateway to Medical Studies, a one-year pre-medical certificate | Yes |
| Adjusted entry of AAABB by end of S5, including Higher Biology and Chemistry and either Higher Maths or Physics, with a graded adjustment applied to the applicant's score. S6 conditional offers require two Advanced Highers at BB.Two separate mechanisms, easily conflated: the adjusted offer is direct MBChB entry at lower grades, the Gateway is a separate one-year course with narrower eligibility (SIMD 0 to 20 only). | Glasgow adjusted entryChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Greater Manchester | Not stated | Not stated | Nothing published. No page using the term contextual offer or contextual admissions could be found on the university's site, and the medical school states that the 2027 cohort is open to international students only, with no allocation from the Department of Health and Social Care or NHS England for home places.Formerly the University of Bolton. If home places are allocated in a future cycle, re-check rather than carrying this row forward. | Greater Manchester medical schoolChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Lancashire (UCLan) | Yes |
| The Fair Access Scheme reduces entry requirements by 16 UCAS points on eligible courses, but medicine is capped at a maximum of 8 UCAS points against a standard AAA. A further unquantified weighting is applied at selection to applicants meeting the widening participation criteria. No contextual UCAT threshold is published.The scheme applies only to courses starting in September 2026 or later. The MBBS page names the scheme and the weighting but does not list the criteria itself. | UCLan Fair Access SchemeChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of LeedsSeparate widening-access route: Gateway Year to Medicine MBChB (I900), entry BBC | Yes |
| Access to Leeds offer of ABB, with Chemistry and Biology taken and an A in either, against a standard AAA. The contextual factors are also used in shortlisting for interview. An Access to Leeds application must be submitted alongside the UCAS form.Two separate mechanisms: a reduced Access to Leeds offer, and contextual factors in shortlisting. The weight carried by the shortlisting factors is not published. | Leeds MBChB course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of LeicesterSeparate widening-access route: A199 Medicine with Foundation Year MBChB, 38 places | Yes |
| Contextual offer of AAA against a standard A*AA for 2027 entry. Access Leicester: Medicine completers are guaranteed an interview if predicted at least ABB with a UCAT score in the top seven deciles and SJT band 1 to 3; Realising Opportunities and Sutton Trust completers are guaranteed an interview if predicted AAA on the same UCAT condition. Applicants with two or more contextual markers may be prioritised over those with the same score and fewer markers.Leicester states it is no longer part of UKWPMED for 2027 entry, except for 2025/26 completers in their first gap year. | Leicester widening participationChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of LincolnSeparate widening-access route: Medicine MBChB with Gateway Year, A106 | Yes |
| Contextual offer reduced by one grade, giving AAB where one of the A grades must be in Biology. Separately, contextual applicants receive additional selection scoring capped at 12 towards their combined academic score. The additional scoring applies to A100 only, not to the gateway course or to graduate applicants.One of the most clearly specified policies in this table. The scoring uplift and the grade reduction are two separate mechanisms, and only the grade reduction is the contextual offer. | Lincoln Medical School admissions guidanceChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of LiverpoolSeparate widening-access route: Foundation to Medicine (Year 0), taught at Carmel College | Yes |
| A reduced offer of up to two grades below the standard offer. Each application is reviewed to decide whether it is appropriate to accept reduced GCSE, UCAT or interview performance, with contextual applicants expected to offer at least 12 points at GCSE, and English language and maths at grade 6. For 2026 entry the school of medicine intended to make up to 50 reduced contextual offers.Applies only to home students, not to graduates or mature applicants, and Liverpool states that special consideration does not guarantee an interview, offer or reduced offer. | Liverpool medicine contextual data policy (PDF)Checked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Manchester | Yes |
| Contextual A level offer of AAB against a standard AAA. WP Plus and WP Plus Plus applicants may offer six GCSEs at grade 7 or above rather than seven. Named access programmes go further: the Manchester Access Programme gives a lower UCAT threshold, a guaranteed interview if that threshold is met, and an ABB offer; the Preston Widening Access Programme gives a lower UCAT threshold and an AAB offer; Lancashire Access Medics participants are considered for lower grade and UCAT requirements.The university-wide page describes WP Plus as usually one grade lower and WP Plus Plus as two, but the medicine course page publishes only one contextual level. The deeper reduction comes through the named access programmes, not the flag alone. | Manchester MBChB course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of NottinghamSeparate widening-access route: A108 Medicine with a Foundation Year | Yes |
| Contextual offer of AAB, one grade below standard, with at least an A in Biology or Chemistry. Enhanced contextual offer of ABB, two grades below standard, with at least an A in Biology or Chemistry. Contextual status also relaxes the A level resit rule to BBB. No contextual UCAT threshold or guaranteed interview is stated.The independent school exclusion is tighter for medicine: independent school applicants can qualify for standard but not enhanced offers. The gateway year is open only to applicants who do not meet the standard or contextual grades for A100. | Nottingham contextual offersChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Oxford | No |
| No contextual offer. The medical school states it does not use a binary classification of applicants as contextual or non-contextual, nor does it make contextual offers for A100 Medicine, but that it does look carefully at contextual data during the application process. It also states that evidence of disadvantage is not in itself a guarantee of an application being shortlisted for interview.One of the few schools to rule a contextual offer out by name while confirming contextual data is still read. | Oxford Medical Sciences FAQChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of PlymouthSeparate widening-access route: BMBS with Foundation (Year 0) | Yes |
| Widening access offer of AAB, with grade A in Biology, grade A in a second science and a third A level in any subject, against the standard offer.Two Plymouth pages disagree on terminology: the university-wide contextual offers page says contextual offers are not available for medicine and dentistry, while the course page publishes this lower widening access offer. The course page wording is used here. | Plymouth BMBS entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Sheffield | Yes |
| Access Sheffield offer of AAB including Chemistry or Biology at grade A and a second science, against a standard AAA. Students completing Access to Sheffield (Medicine) get a contextual offer of up to two A level grades below standard and, distinctively, will not have their UCAT score ranked alongside other applicants, though the minimum UCAT threshold still applies.Sheffield runs no gateway year of its own. It signposts partner foundation routes at Bradford and Sheffield Hallam, which is a different thing. | Sheffield widening accessChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of SouthamptonSeparate widening-access route: A102 BMBS Medicine BM6 Widening Participation, six years, typical offer BBB | Yes |
| Contextual A level requirement of AAB including Biology and one additional science, against a standard AAA. Southampton requires TWO contextual flags for BM5, where most of its courses require one. Contextual applicants must still meet the standard GCSE requirement, and contextual offers apply to school leaver applicants only.Contextual admissions does not apply to BM4 graduate entry or to BM5 mature and graduate entry. The BM6 gateway route has its own separate criteria and does not carry a lower offer. | Southampton BM5 course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of St AndrewsSeparate widening-access route: Gateway to Medicine, a one-year full-time programme | Yes |
| Consideration under minimum rather than standard entry requirements: AAABB in S5 with at least BB predicted, or AAB at A level including Chemistry and one of Biology, maths or physics, or 36 IB points, against AAAAB with BBB predicted, AAA, or 38 points. No UCAT threshold adjustment is stated.The medicine page says lowest 40% most deprived areas rather than naming SIMD or IMD quintiles. The university-wide policy confirms SIMD, IMD and ACORN lowest 40% is the mechanism. | St Andrews medicine entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Sunderland | Yes |
| Contextual offers of AAB or ABB against a standard AAA. The ABB offer is available only if Sunderland is the firm choice on UCAS; as an insurance choice the offer is AAB.The firm-choice condition on the ABB offer is unusual and worth flagging to a student before they decide their firm and insurance. | Sunderland MBChB course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Surrey | Not stated |
| Nothing published for graduate entry medicine. The university-wide contextual offer is typically two A level grades lower than the published grade, home students only, and subject requirements are not reduced. The BMBS admissions policy does not contain the word contextual at all, and its widening participation criteria appear only under the Dawson Scholarships, which are funding rather than an admissions adjustment.An A level based policy cannot apply to a degree-entry offer, which is why this is recorded as not stated despite Surrey running a live contextual scheme. | Surrey contextual offersChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Warwick | No | Not stated | No contextual offer. The policy states it applies exclusively to undergraduate entry programmes and does not extend to foundation year or graduate entry programmes, including medicine. Warwick medicine is graduate entry only.An explicit exclusion by name. The medical school's own pages are silent rather than contradicting it. | Warwick contextual offers policyChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Wolverhampton | Not stated |
| Nothing published for the MBChB. The university-wide policy gives 8 UCAS points below the entry criteria for moderate indicators and 16 points for multiple indicators. It names no excluded courses, but its mechanisms are UK-specific and the medicine course takes international students only, by direct application rather than through UCAS.The policy contradicts itself on mature learners, listing age 21 and over as a qualifying circumstance while its preamble excludes applicants aged 21 or over on 1 September of the year of entry. Worth confirming with admissions if it becomes relevant. | Wolverhampton contextual admissions policyChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Worcester | Not stated |
| Nothing published for graduate entry medicine. The university-wide contextual offer is a grade reduction of one grade below the published entry requirements, which does not obviously map onto the MBChB's requirement of a first or 2:1 degree. The medical school pages describe widening access aims and a guaranteed interview for those achieving the academic entry requirements, but publish no contextual criteria or adjustment.The university-wide policy names no excluded courses, so this is silence rather than a refusal. | Worcester contextual offersChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
Dentistry is frequently treated differently from medicine at the same university, even where one page appears to cover both. Each row here was checked against the dental course's own page.
| University | Contextual offer | Who it applies to, in the university's words | What changes | Official source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiff University | Yes |
| Not a grade reduction. Contextual applicants are given additional consideration in the scoring and selection process used to decide who is invited to interview. Applicants who have taken part in Step Up, the Sutton Trust Dental Summer School, the North Wales Dentistry Widening Participation programme, Deintyddion Yfory or the International Foundation Year are eligible for a guaranteed interview.The school of dentistry also recognises Welsh-domiciled applicants as a contextualised group. The Pathway to Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy gives a guaranteed interview for BSc Dental Therapy, not for BDS. | Cardiff contextual dataChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| King's College LondonSeparate widening-access route: Enhanced Support Dentistry Programme BDS (A206) | No | Not stated | No contextual offer for A200. King's states it does not make contextual offers for this programme and that all applicants are required to meet the standard entry requirements.The A206 route is for students from non-selective state schools within a London borough. | King's dentistry entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Lancashire (UCLan) | No | Not stated | No contextual offer. Dental Surgery BDS is named on the Fair Access Scheme's list of courses that are not eligible for the scheme, alongside Dental Therapy, Clinical Dental Technology and Pharmacy.A genuine named exclusion rather than silence. The BDS is a four-year graduate entry pathway with no school leaver or gateway route. | UCLan Fair Access SchemeChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Newcastle University | Yes |
| PARTNERS offer of ABB for BDS, a two-grade reduction against a typical AAA, plus the Summer School. Newcastle states the UCAT score required may vary depending on the route of entry, including PARTNERS and widening participation applicants.The UCAT flexibility is worded as may vary by route, not as a published lower threshold. | Newcastle dental admissions policy (PDF)Checked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Queen Mary University of London | Yes |
| One grade drop for medicine, dentistry and law, against up to two grades elsewhere in the university. Enhanced offers are AAA plus a guaranteed interview, or AAB for care leavers.The A200 selection criteria page makes no mention of contextual admissions, so the figure rests on the university-wide page and the 2026 admissions policy. | Queen Mary contextualised admissionsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| Queen's University Belfast | Yes |
| Northern Ireland school applicants are shortlisted on AS-level grades rather than GCSE performance, plus UCAT and predicted A-level performance. POP SMDBS pathway students receive a guaranteed interview and a possible offer of one A level grade below the normal target. Other POP pathways give a guaranteed interview with the normal entry requirements applying.Policy read is the 2026-entry statement. The grade reduction is worded as possible, not guaranteed. | QUB dentistry admissions policy (PDF)Checked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Aberdeen | Yes |
| Graduate dentistry is named as a controlled subject where Aberdeen cannot independently set all of the entry requirements. The policy states the university may still be able to give an adjusted offer, and guarantees an interview for care experienced applicants who meet or are predicted to meet the academic entry requirements. The level of any grade adjustment is not published.The weakest row in this table. The dentistry course pages make no mention of contextual admissions at all, so the only official statement is the university-wide policy, which is conditional and headed 2025/26. Treat the guaranteed interview as the firm part and confirm the rest with admissions. | Aberdeen contextualised admissions policy (PDF)Checked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Birmingham | Yes |
| Contextual applicants are screened against a contextual offer of typically AAB rather than the standard AAA, so contextual status changes the grades used at screening as well as the offer. Pathways to Birmingham gives an alternative offer of a minimum ABB including Chemistry and Biology.The AAB figure sits on the selection for interview page rather than the entry requirements page. UKWPMED does not cover dentistry. | Birmingham dentistry entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of BristolSeparate widening-access route: BDS Gateway to Dentistry, with automatic progression to BDS Dentistry | Yes |
| Contextual A level offer of ABB, including an A in Chemistry and a B in one of Biology, physics or maths, against a standard AAA. The dentistry admissions statement puts it as contextual offers usually two grades lower than the typical offer, and notes there is no UCAT cut-off score, though the UCAT ranks applicants for interview.The dentistry admissions statement defers eligibility detail to the central contextual offers page rather than listing dentistry-specific criteria. | Bristol BDS course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Dundee | Yes |
| Widening access Higher offer of AAABB against a standard AAAAB, with Higher Biology and Chemistry (at least one at A), Advanced Higher Biology or Chemistry at B, and National 5 maths and English at B. Applicants completing Highers over two years must also attend and pass the Dundee Access Summer School. No UCAT threshold adjustment is stated.A useful contrast with Dundee medicine: the Access Summer School is compulsory in some dentistry widening access offers but unavailable to medicine applicants. | Dundee dentistry entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of East Anglia (UEA) | No | Not stated | No contextual offer. BDS Dental Surgery is named in the course exceptions list under UEA's contextual admissions scheme, so it is excepted from the scheme's standard two-grade A level reduction. The course page itself is silent on contextual admissions.The UEA dental school is new, with a first cohort in September 2027 and General Dental Council approval still in progress, so this policy is more likely than most to change. Re-check before advising a student. | UEA contextual admissions, 2027 entryChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Glasgow | Yes |
| Adjusted requirements at the end of S6 of AABB including an A in Chemistry or Biology, or AAABB with Advanced Higher Biology or Chemistry, against standard requirements of Higher Biology at A, Chemistry at A and Advanced Higher Biology or Chemistry at B.Unlike medicine there is no adjusted route from S5, and Reach completion is a stated requirement rather than an advantage. Glasgow runs no gateway year for dentistry. | Glasgow adjusted entryChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Leeds | Yes |
| Access to Leeds offer of ABB, with Chemistry and Biology taken and an A in either Chemistry or Biology, against a standard AAA including Biology and Chemistry.Unlike the medicine page, the dentistry course page does not spell out contextual factors used in shortlisting. Leeds runs no dentistry gateway year. | Leeds BChD course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of LiverpoolSeparate widening-access route: Foundation to Dentistry (Year 0) | Yes |
| Additional consideration at any stage of the admissions process, with each application reviewed to decide whether it is appropriate to accept reduced UCAT or interview performance. The university-wide offer adjustment is up to two grades below the standard offer, which for dentistry is AAA.The course page confirms contextual offers and UCAT flexibility but does not state a grade figure itself. The two-grade figure comes from the university-wide policy, which carves out no exception for dentistry. | Liverpool BDS course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Manchester | Yes |
| Contextual A level offer of AAB including Chemistry and Biology, against a standard AAA. WP Plus and WP Plus Plus applicants may offer six GCSEs at grade 7 or above rather than seven. No contextual UCAT threshold reduction is published for dentistry, and SJT bands 3 and 4 are not considered.The dentistry application process page says nothing about widening participation. The former pre-dental entry route now returns a 404 for 2026 and 2027, and was in any case an academic-background route rather than a deprivation-based one. | Manchester BDS course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of PlymouthSeparate widening-access route: BDS Dental Surgery with Integrated Foundation Year | Yes |
| Widening access offer of AAB including grade A in Biology and grade A in a second science, with the third A level unrestricted. The resit policy for widening participation students is ABC.Dentistry uses a minimum-of-three-indicators threshold, not the five-point system Plymouth applies to medicine. The two courses are worded differently and should not be merged. | Plymouth BDS entry requirementsChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Portsmouth | Not stated |
| Nothing published for BDS. The university-wide scheme offers an adjusted offer lower than the typical course offer, signposted in the offer email, but the size is never published and dentistry is never named.Portsmouth's BDS is brand new, with a first intake in September 2027, so no dentistry-specific policy is published yet. Portsmouth also states explicitly that progression onto BDS from its Science with Foundation Year is not currently an option. | Portsmouth BDS course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
| University of Sheffield | Yes |
| Access Sheffield offer of AAB including Chemistry and Biology, plus a pass in the practical element of any science A levels taken, against a standard AAA. Completing Access to Sheffield (Dentistry) gives a contextual offer subject to conditions, including passing an interview where required. | Sheffield BDS course pageChecked 16 Sept 2026 |
Most of these are things the school already knows and the student does not. A data check in September finds more eligible applicants than any assembly.
| Criterion | Who holds the evidence | What confirming it involves |
|---|---|---|
| Free school meals, now or in the last six years | School records | The single most commonly used criterion, and one the school can confirm outright from its own records. Eligibility history matters as much as current status, because most schools word it as free school meals at any point in the six years up to the end of Key Stage 4. Students frequently do not know they were ever registered, particularly if it was in Year 7. |
| School or college performance (Attainment 8, Progress 8, average A level grade) | School records | A property of the institution rather than the student, so one check settles it for the whole cohort. Universities word the threshold differently, from below the national average Attainment 8 to a named percentile, so check the figure against each school's own wording rather than assuming a single cut-off. |
| Care experience, care leaver status, or a local authority order | School records | Usually known to the designated safeguarding lead and the virtual school. This is the highest-value flag in the system: several universities give it a guaranteed interview or their largest reduction, and some extend eligibility to students at independent schools where nothing else would. It normally has to be declared on the UCAS form and evidenced by a date the university sets, which is often well before interview. |
| Young carer, estranged from parents, or a student parent | School records | Frequently known pastorally but rarely recorded in a way that reaches the application. Several universities require third-party evidence, which in practice means a letter from the school, so the earlier this is identified the less it collides with the October deadline. |
| POLAR4, TUNDRA, IMD, SIMD or WIMD area measures | Public lookup | Derived from the student's home postcode, and most universities publish a checker on their own site so a student can confirm their own status in a minute. They are not interchangeable: a postcode can be POLAR4 quintile 1 and IMD quintile 3, and a school that uses one will not accept the other. Check each university's tool, not a generic one. |
| Receipt of the UCAT bursary | Public lookup | A proxy several schools accept in its own right, and one a teacher can raise directly, because the bursary itself is applied for through the UCAT test provider before the summer test window. A student who qualifies for it and does not claim it loses both the fee saving and, at some schools, a contextual flag. |
| First generation to attend university | Family must supply | Self-declared on the UCAS form, from a question students routinely answer carelessly or leave blank. Worth ten minutes in a tutor session going through the UCAS questions line by line, because there is no route to correct it afterwards. |
| Household income, means-tested benefits, refugee or asylum status | Family must supply | The family must supply it, and some of it needs documentary evidence. This is the group where an early, plainly worded letter home does the most work, because parents who would never volunteer the information will supply it when they can see what it is for. |
Every row above was read from the university's own page on that date, for 2027 entry. Universities revise these policies annually, and the quantified parts move most: admissions test thresholds are re-set after each cohort sits the test, and several schools publish their contextual figure only once the cycle opens. Some rows also rest on a policy document headed for an earlier cycle, which is noted in the row itself.
Treat the table as a map of where to look rather than as the final word. The source link on each row is the thing to read before a student acts on it, and it is also the thing to send a parent who wants to check what they have been told.
No, and treating it as one is the most common way a student is given wrong advice. Three things vary independently: who qualifies, what the adjustment is, and whether medicine and dentistry are included at all. Some schools reduce the offer by two grades, some by one, some make no grade adjustment but review the admissions test score against a lower threshold, and some do nothing to the offer but guarantee an interview. Several universities that publish a generous contextual policy exclude medicine and dentistry from it by name, so quoting the university-wide figure to a medicine applicant can overstate their position badly.
That is the reason this table records each school's own wording rather than grouping them into categories. Read the row for the specific course, then open the source link before you tell a student anything.
The school can usually confirm free school meal history, its own performance data, care experience and, pastorally, young carer or estranged status. Area measures such as POLAR4, IMD and SIMD are public lookups keyed to the home postcode, and most universities host their own checker. What has to come from the family is household income, means-tested benefits, refugee or asylum status, and whether a parent attended university, which is self-declared on the UCAS form.
The practical consequence is that a data check in September, before the October deadline, identifies eligible students more reliably than any assembly. Students very often do not know they were registered for free school meals in Year 7, and there is no way to correct a UCAS declaration after submission.
It changes the threshold, not the competition, and it is never a guarantee. Universities are explicit about this: several state in terms that contextual status does not guarantee an interview, an offer or a reduced offer, and one states that evidence of disadvantage is not in itself a guarantee of being shortlisted. A contextual flag improves the odds at the stages where it applies, and at some schools the lower admissions test threshold is worth considerably more than the grade reduction.
The honest framing for a student is that it widens the range of schools where their application is competitive, which makes it a tool for building a sensible list of four rather than a reason to aim higher at every one of them.
It is a different thing, and for some students a much better one. A gateway or foundation year is a separate course, usually with its own UCAS code, that adds a year to the degree and carries a substantially lower entry requirement. Successful completion gives progression into year one of the standard course. Eligibility is normally restricted to widening participation criteria, and at several schools an applicant must not meet the standard course's grade requirements in order to qualify.
Some universities that refuse contextual offers for medicine outright run one of these instead, and route every widening participation applicant through it. A student who is screened out of the standard course on grades may be a strong candidate for the gateway route at the same university, so check both before concluding a school is closed to them.
A contextual flag is only useful alongside a realistic list of four. The medicine entry requirements guide and the dentistry entry requirements guide hold the standard offers these adjustments are measured against, and how universities use the UCAT explains the thresholds and historic cut-offs that a contextual adjustment moves. For a student whose score has come in below what they hoped, where to apply with a low UCAT score is the page to read alongside this table.
The full lists of UK medical schools and UK dental schools carry the profile pages linked from each row of the table above.
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.
“Harry got my UCAT up to 2,590, working through the sections I kept dropping marks on week by week. Gemma then ran my interview practice so the MMI stations didn't catch me out, and Dr Akash mentored me the whole way through. I'm off to King's for Medicine.”
“The interview prep was the part that actually moved the needle. Proper mock MMIs, not just lists of questions, and feedback that was honest about what I was getting wrong. I ended up with four offers and firmed UCL.”
“The Ultimate Package kept me organised from UCAT through to interviews. They knew what dental schools actually ask and tightened up my personal statement. Four offers in the end, and I'm going to Birmingham.”
“Vet applications come down to the written SAQs as much as the interview. Dr Rebecca went through my SAQs line by line, sharpened my answers and prepped me for the panels. I came away with four offers and chose the RVC.”
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