The UK is a sought-after destination for international students, with hundreds of thousands of internationals coming to the UK yearly to study. There are endless reasons people choose to study in the UK: the quantity of high calibre universities, degrees internationally recognised and held to prestige, the landscape, the history, the culture, the travel…the list goes on! Amongst these sought-after UK degrees, medicine ranks very highly! UK medical schools are highly sought after by students all around the world, with the majority coming from around Europe or North America. An appealing feat of studying medicine in the UK is a previous undergraduate degree isn't a pre-requirement: you can go directly from schooling into studying medicine as an undergraduate course (5 or 6 years) in the UK. However, for students who previously have achieved undergraduate degrees, they also have the option of applying to graduate medical programs (4 years) in addition to the undergraduate medical problems.

When applying to the UK as an international medical student, it's important to plan as far ahead as you can and make sure you have all necessary pieces of the application ready ahead of time. FutureDoc'sone-on-one coaching can help you make sure you're not missing anything you need ot be prepared for your application cycle. The first thing to be aware of is which medical school do accept international applicants, and what their requirements are of those students. You can find always breakdown of the entry requirements for applicants on every university's respective medical school homepage; however, you may have to dig a little further to find the grade conversions if you didn't graduate from an A level schooling program: look through the 'entry requirements' on the medical school homepage to find the requirements specific to your country. If you struggle to find them, don't shy away from emailing the medical school directly for a breakdown of what you need to make sure you're application is as complete as it needs to be. Below, you will find a breakdown of every single medical school in the UK, including whether they accept international applicants and if so, which program.

It is important to note that the university fees for all international programs are changing in the coming years, but generally they follow a pattern of costing roughly mid £20,000 for the pre-clinical years (years 1-3 in undergraduate programs, years 1-2 in graduate programs), and £45,000-55,000 for the clinical years (years 4-5/6 in undergraduate programs, years 3-4 in graduate programs.) Most universities do not advertise the number of spaces included for international students as it changes year to year, but I recommend emailing the schools individually and asking them to release the number they plan on accepting for your application cycle – they may not necessarily reveal it, but its worth a try.

There's a lot to consider when applying to medical school in the UK, the first of which is what schools you can apply to. Once that's determined, make note of which medical school entry exam(s) you need to write! FutureDoc hascourses available for UCAT and GAMSAT so you can increase your chances of acing your exams! Some other things to consider can be closest airports if you hope to travel home frequently, connectivity of your medical school's city to where you might have friends or family nearby, cost of living in that city, as converted into your currency.

Written by Hiba Al-Bahrani