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Learn About Our Programme See How We Can Support Your Application →Imperial College partnership offering graduate entry medicine in the Lake District
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 If you spot something that looks out of date, tell us and we will check it.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
Imperial Partnership: Pears Cumbria is delivered in partnership with Imperial College London. Graduates receive an Imperial College degree while training in one of England's most beautiful and medically underserved regions.
Considering Pears Cumbria Medicine? Here's a complete breakdown of entry requirements, admissions criteria, and the application process for 2026 entry.
The Pears Cumbria School of Medicine, established with philanthropic support from the Pears Foundation, offers a unique graduate entry medicine programme in Cumbria. This partnership with Imperial College London trains doctors specifically for rural and remote communities.
Based at the University of Cumbria Fusehill Street campus, Carlisle, this programme offers something genuinely different: world-class Imperial teaching combined with rural medical education in a stunning setting.
| Requirement | Detail |
|---|---|
| Degree Classification | 2:1 minimum |
| Degree Discipline | Biosciences or Allied Healthcare degree |
| Degree Status | Must be completed before course starts |
No GCSE or A-level requirements.
| Test | Detail |
|---|---|
| UCAT | Accepted. Must be sat in the same year as your UCAS submission. 2026-entry thresholds: 1960 total (standard), 1910 total (contextual). Reset annually; 2027-entry figures not yet published. |
| GAMSAT | Accepted. Must be sat within the two years before your UCAS submission date. 2026-entry thresholds: 59 total (standard), 53 total (contextual). Reset annually; 2027-entry figures not yet published. |
| When results are seen | Results are made available to the admissions team in the November before your intended entry |
| Scale change | Pears Cumbria notes that "UCAT scores for 2026 entry are different due to the removal of the abstract reasoning section", which lowered the maximum total from 3,600 to 2,700. Earlier thresholds are not comparable. |
| 2027-entry thresholds | Not published yet — check cumbriamed.ac.uk/study before you commit a UCAS choice |
| Metric | Figure |
|---|---|
| Applications per place | 11 : 1 (2025), published by Imperial on the course page |
| Annual places | Not published |
| Interview invitations | Not published |
| Offers made | Not published — the first intake is September 2027, so there is no completed cycle for this course yet |
"Pears Cumbria is genuinely unique - an Imperial College degree in the Lake District. It's perfect for graduates who want world-class teaching but don't want a London experience. The focus on rural medicine means you'll develop skills that most urban-trained doctors never acquire."
— 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 | Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), which "may be conducted in a blended format with in person interviews" |
| Number of Stations | Not published |
| Interview Period | Not published |
| What's Assessed | Commitment to medicine and understanding the role of a doctor; potential to contribute to the medical school and the region; teamwork and leadership; ethics; empathy; resilience and adaptability |
| A Cumbria-specific question | "During the MMI, candidates will be assessed on their understanding of and interest in improving health outcomes for the people of Cumbria." Prepare for this specifically. |
| Mitigating circumstances | Tell the PCSM Admissions Officer as early as possible; they are reviewed and may be taken into account for borderline candidates. Late claims are not considered without clear evidence of why they could not be made on time. |
Worth noting: the admissions policy is explicit that it "is not restricted to residents of Cumbria, and it promotes equality and fairness for prospective students nationally. Domestic students from other parts of the UK are encouraged to apply."
Accelerated biomedical sciences with early clinical exposure in Cumbria.
Clinical placements across North and South Cumbria from early in the programme. Strong emphasis on general practice, emergency medicine, and rural healthcare.
Not eligible
Pears Cumbria can only accept applications from prospective students who are classed as Home (UK) students for fee purposes. International applicants are not eligible to apply, and the programme is designed for those committed to working in rural and underserved communities.
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.
The degree is awarded by Imperial College London, so the criteria are Imperial's, not the University of Cumbria's. You need Home fee status or an appropriate UK residential status, plus one of:
Or your home postcode falls into POLAR4 quintile 1 or 2 and you also meet one of:
Your home address means your place of permanent residence, not your school or boarding school. Eligibility is assessed from your UCAS application, and changes to your situation after the application deadline will not be considered. For Medicine applicants the contextual flag has to be in place by 15 October 2026.
If you qualify, Pears Cumbria does not lower its academic requirement — you still need a 2:1 — but you have to clear a lower admissions test threshold to reach interview.
| How it helps | What that means for you |
|---|---|
| A lower UCAT threshold | 1910 instead of 1960 total for 2026 entry. Imperial confirms this mechanism on the A102 course page: "Candidates who meet the College's contextual admissions criteria are required to meet a lower minimum threshold score (a contextual score) in the GAMSAT or UCAT admissions tests." |
| A lower GAMSAT threshold | 53 instead of 59 total for 2026 entry — proportionally the bigger of the two concessions. |
| No GCSE or A-level requirements at all | This applies to everyone, not just contextual applicants, and it is a deliberate widening-access design choice. Selection rests on your degree classification, your admissions test score and your interview, so a weak school record is not itself a barrier. |
| Imperial's central contextual scheme | Imperial's admissions-schemes page lists four benefits for contextual applicants: a guaranteed interview, a guaranteed minimum-level offer, extra transition support, and the reduced GAMSAT/UCAT threshold. It also runs an August contextual reconsideration pool for applicants who were not initially offered a place but achieved strong results. |
Where to ask a direct question: Imperial's guaranteed interview and guaranteed offer are both written in terms of "predicted grades meet our minimum entry standard of AAA at A-level or equivalent" — a condition that does not map onto a graduate-entry course with no A-level requirement. The guaranteed-offer section names BSc Medical Biosciences explicitly and is silent on the graduate-entry MBBS. The only benefit Imperial confirms on the A102 course page itself is the reduced admissions test threshold. If the guaranteed interview or the August reconsideration pool matters to your plans, email cumbriamedadmissions@cumbria.ac.uk and get it in writing before you apply.
Every school does this differently, and the differences are worth knowing before you build your shortlist — see every UK medical and dental school's widening participation scheme.
| Fee Status | Annual Tuition |
|---|---|
| Home (UK) | £10,050 per year |
| International | Not eligible — "Only open to home students". Imperial publishes no Overseas fee for this course. |
The Home figure is published by Imperial on the MBBS Medicine (Graduate Entry) course page as "Home fee 2027 entry — £10,050 per year". Imperial's stated policy is to "charge Home fees in line with the Government's fee cap", and it warns: "you should expect a rise in your fee each year", with the 2028/29 cap not yet announced. As a graduate-entry student your student finance entitlement may differ from a first-degree student's — check your position with Student Finance England before you commit.
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.
There's no binding commitment, but the programme is designed for people who want to work in rural and underserved communities. If you have no interest in this type of practice, the programme may not be the right fit.
Yes. You graduate with an MBBS from Imperial College London, the same qualification as students who studied in London.
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Last updated: March 2026
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