Future Doc students achieve a 93% success rate. Our programme includes UCAT preparation, personal statement review, interview practice, and university selection guidance — all led by doctors who have been through the process themselves.
Learn About Our Programme See How We Can Support Your Application →New medical school in the North West accepting multiple admissions tests
HOW WE BUILT THIS
We compile these profiles from each university's own published admissions pages and review them monthly. Entry requirements do change mid-cycle, and universities sometimes publish updates without announcing them.
Use this page to get oriented quickly, build your shortlist, and work out which questions to ask — then confirm the specifics that your application depends on (grades, admissions test, fees, eligibility) directly with the university before you apply. If you spot something that looks out of date, tell us and we will check it.
Last reviewed: October 2026 · Entry year covered: 2027
Unique Admissions: Chester is one of the few UK medical schools that accepts UCAT, GAMSAT, or MCAT. This flexibility is particularly helpful for international applicants and career changers.
Considering Chester Medicine? Here's a complete breakdown of entry requirements, admissions criteria, and the application process for 2027 entry.
The University of Chester Medical School is one of the UK's newest medical schools, established to help address the shortage of doctors in the North West. Located in the historic city of Chester, it runs one medical programme: the four-year accelerated Graduate Entry MBChB (A101). There is no five-year school-leaver route here.
Chester's unique selling point is accepting multiple admissions tests - UCAT, GAMSAT, and even MCAT. This flexibility makes it accessible to a wider range of applicants.
UCAS Code: A101 | 4 years (Graduate Entry only)
Four-year Graduate Entry degree. Requires at least upper second class honours (2:1) degree in any subject. UCAT, GAMSAT, or MCAT accepted.
You are viewing this courseChester offers Graduate Entry Medicine only — there is no standard-entry five-year A100 programme at Chester, so A101 is the only UCAS code to apply under.
| Qualification | Requirement |
|---|---|
| Degree Requirement | At least upper second class honours (2:1) degree in any subject |
Chester accepts multiple admissions tests, providing flexibility for different applicant profiles:
| Test | Accepted For | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| UCAT | A101 | Standard UK test |
| GAMSAT | A101 | Good for non-science graduates |
| MCAT | A101 | Helpful for North American applicants |
| Threshold score | All three tests | Chester requires a threshold score in whichever test you sit. The minimum threshold scores fluctuate annually and will be set above the national mean |
"Chester's flexibility with admissions tests is genuinely unusual in the UK. If you've already taken the MCAT or prefer GAMSAT over UCAT, Chester opens a door that's closed elsewhere. It's also a beautiful, affordable city to study in."
— Dr. Ash, Future Doc
Note: The UCAT format changed in July 2025 with the removal of Abstract Reasoning, reducing the maximum score from 3,600 to 2,700. Cut-off scores and statistics from previous years may not directly apply to the current format.
| Aspect | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | MMI (Multiple Mini Interview), in person |
| Number of Stations | Six — Chester publishes this figure directly |
| Total Duration | Approximately one and a half hours |
| Assessors | Two trained assessors score you at each station, drawn from medical professionals, academics, current students and lay people |
| What's Assessed | Station content changes each year, but all stations are designed to assess against GMC "Good Medical Practice" guidance |
| Who is interviewed | All applicants who meet the academic criteria and the entry test threshold are required to attend an interview |
| Interview Period | Not published |
Welcomed
Chester is particularly accessible for international students due to accepting MCAT and other international qualifications.
University-wide scheme only — no medicine-specific route published
Chester runs a university-wide contextual offer scheme, but neither the MBChB course page nor the Medical School's own pages mention contextual offers or widening participation at all. See the Contextual & Widening Participation section below for what that does and does not mean for an A101 applicant.
A contextual offer is an adjustment a university makes for applicants whose circumstances have made their education harder than the grades alone suggest. Universities use them because they recognise that two students with the same predicted grades have not always had the same run at them. They are a formal, published part of the admissions process — not a favour, and not something you have to argue for.
What the adjustment actually is varies by school, and it matters more than most applicants realise. Depending on where you apply, qualifying can mean: a lower grade offer; being ranked against other widening participation applicants rather than the whole field; a guaranteed or prioritised interview; a lower admissions test threshold or extra shortlisting points; relaxed GCSE or subject requirements; or access to a separate gateway or foundation year route.
Here is the honest position, and it is not the one Chester's general pages imply. The university runs a contextual offer scheme that can "lower your entry requirements by one or two grades", offer an alternative pathway such as a foundation year, or prompt the admissions team to request more information or invite you to interview. But Chester publishes no medicine-specific figures at all, and nothing on the Medical School's own pages says the scheme reaches the MBChB. The MBChB is a four-year graduate-entry course selected on degree classification, not A-level grades, so a "one or two grade reduction" has nothing obvious to attach to. If a contextual criterion applies to you, treat this as a question to ask Chester directly rather than a benefit to count on.
| How it helps | What that means for you |
|---|---|
| Possible reduction of one or two grades | This is the headline of the university-wide scheme. It is written for school-leaver courses where an offer is expressed in A-level grades. A101 asks for a 2:1 in any subject and does not quote an A-level offer, so it is not clear what a grade reduction would mean here. Chester does not say. |
| Possible alternative pathway | The scheme mentions offering an alternative route such as a foundation year. Chester runs no gateway or foundation year into medicine, so there is no alternative pathway to be offered on this course. |
| Possible request for more information, or an invitation to interview | This is the part most likely to have real effect on an A101 application. Chester already interviews every applicant who meets the academic criteria and the test threshold, so its practical value is limited — the threshold is the gate, not the interview. |
| What it does not touch: the test threshold | Chester sets a minimum threshold score in UCAT, GAMSAT or MCAT that "fluctuate[s] annually and will be set above the national mean". That sentence applies to everybody. There is no lower contextual threshold. |
This is a case where a phone call is worth more than any webpage. Ask Chester's admissions team one direct question: does the university contextual offer scheme have any effect on selection for the MBChB, and if so what? Nothing on the medical school's own pages says it does. If you get a clear answer either way, we would like to hear it so we can update this page.
For a side-by-side comparison, see every UK medical and dental school's widening participation scheme.
Chester has not yet published tuition fees for 2027/28 entry, even though the course page lists September 2027 as a start date. Its published figures are for 2026/27 only, and are shown here labelled as such.
| Fee Status | Annual Tuition |
|---|---|
| Home (UK) | £10,050 — the statutory cap set by government for English universities in 2027/28. Chester's own published figure is £9,790 for 2026/27 and it states fees "may be subject to increase in line with the Government fee cap" |
| International | 2027/28: TBC — 2026/27 published rate £46,000 |
The funding gap in Year 1 is the thing to plan for. Chester spells it out: graduate-entry students apply for standard undergraduate finance, but the tuition fee loan available in the first academic year is capped at £5,964, leaving £3,571 of the 2026/27 fee to fund yourself. From Years 2 to 4 the fee is met by a combination of the income-assessed NHS Bursary and a tuition fee loan, and the maintenance loan drops to the reduced rate. Those figures are Chester's 2026/27 ones and will move when the 2027/28 fee is set — but the shape of the problem will not.
The MBChB at Chester is a four-year accelerated graduate-entry course — there is no five-year route here, so there are no "Years 3–5". Chester does not publish a year-by-year breakdown of the curriculum on its course pages, so we are not going to invent one. Entry is only into Year 1, via the standard admissions process, including for applicants transferring from another medical school.
Applying to medical school requires more than meeting the minimum entry requirements. Here are practical steps to strengthen your application:
For an overview of all UK medical schools and how they compare, see the UK Medical Schools hub page.
If you're a UK school leaver, UCAT is the standard choice. Graduates might prefer GAMSAT. International applicants may already have MCAT scores they can use. Chester treats all tests equally in the selection process.
Chester has full GMC accreditation and follows the same standards as all UK medical schools. Being new can be an advantage - smaller cohorts, enthusiastic faculty, and the opportunity to shape the school's development.
Most applicants treat the medical school application as a series of separate hurdles: the UCAT, personal statement, work experience, university selection, and interviews. They try to solve each one independently. This creates a fragmented approach where the pieces never add up.
Future Doc works differently. Through the Predictable Offer Protocol, a dedicated coach who knows your complete profile coordinates every element of your application as one interconnected system. Every decision is made with the full picture in mind.
The result: 93% of our students receive at least one offer. If they don't, they come back next year for free.
Find Out How It Works
Last updated: March 2026
Stay ahead of the competition with our application updates
Copyright Future Doc 2025
