CTU
Entry CriteriaUK and Ireland, medicine, GEM and dentistry
Where To Apply › Contextual and WP routes
Contextual and WP routes
Figures are on the current UCAT scale of 2700 unless a cell says otherwise.
Contextual and widening participation routes: what each school actually does
Only schools that have told us the mechanism are listed. Grade reductions alone are common and are in the last section; the sections above them are worth far more to an applicant. UCAT scores are shown on the scale of their own cycle: 1200 to 3600 up to 2025 entry, 900 to 2700 from 2026 entry. Decile positions are against the national table for the matching test cycle. Dentistry courses are included and are marked in the second column, so they can be filtered or read on their own.
1. An interview is guaranteed, or very nearly so
The strongest thing a contextual route can offer, because it removes the UCAT gate entirely.
| University | Medicine or dentistry | Course | What the contextual route actually gives | Numbers, where the university has given them | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brighton and Sussex | Medicine | A100 | Every contextually disadvantaged applicant meeting the academic requirements was invited to interview, with no UCAT threshold at all | 2026 entry | FOI 4202 |
| Anglia Ruskin | Medicine | A100 | Guaranteed Interview Scheme. Academically eligible applicants on free school meals or care experienced are interviewed without UCAT ranking, on evidence | Offer holders 2026 entry, of 2700: lowest 1490 contextual against 1560 non-contextual. Mean of those offered 1944.2 contextual against 2054.0 non-contextual | FOI 3890 |
| Imperial | Medicine | A100 | Meeting the minimum requirements and the lower contextual threshold guarantees an interview, and if criteria are met, a guaranteed offer at minimum entry level | Threshold 2026 entry, of 2700: 2170 contextual against 2320 home. 2025 entry, of 3600: 2810 against 3020 | IMPFOI-26-423 |
| Leicester | Medicine | A100 | Realising Opportunities and UKWPMED completers get an automatic interview if they meet the requirements and sit in the top seven UCAT deciles | 2025 entry: 145 contextual applicants, 144 interviewed, 74 offered. 2026 entry: 80, 76, 46 | F4665 |
| Cardiff | Medicine | A100 | Guaranteed interview for Step-Up, Doctoriaid Yfory or Sutton Trust participants. Welsh-domiciled applicants treated as contextual | No fixed number of places for the route | FOI26-279 |
| Queen Mary | Medicine | A100 | Guaranteed interview for access scheme participants, plus a grade reduction | Unknown | Published pages |
2. A lower UCAT threshold, and the university has published the number
The most usable figures in the workbook. These tell a student exactly what the bar was.
| University | Medicine or dentistry | Course | What the contextual route actually gives | Numbers, where the university has given them | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aston | Medicine | A100 | No threshold at all. Contextual applicants are ranked in their own separate pool, and get lower offer conditions. No ring-fenced places | 2026 entry, of 2700: lowest contextual interviewed 1560, BELOW the 1st national decile, against 1580 non-contextual. Lowest offered 1690 against 1730. 2025 entry, of 3600: lowest interviewed and offered 2320 contextual, the 3rd decile, against 2460 non-contextual, the 5th. Contextual applicants: 569 applications, 315 interviews, 244 offers in 2026 entry | FOI/2627/013 |
| Plymouth | Medicine | A102 foundation | Widening access route only | 2026 entry: 1400 of 2700, which is BELOW the 1st national decile. The lowest threshold recorded anywhere here | FOI0174/2026 |
| Plymouth | Medicine | A100 | Lower threshold plus AAB against a standard A-star AA | 2026 entry: 1800 contextual against 1850 home, the 4th decile against the 5th. 2025 entry: 2540 against 2600, the 6th decile against the 7th | FOI0174/2026 |
| Manchester | Medicine | A100 | Lower threshold, plus AAB, or ABB for care experienced and refugee applicants | 2026 entry: 1960 of 2700 against 2060 home. 2025 entry: 2520 of 3600 against 2710 | Published policy |
| Imperial | Medicine | A100 | See section 1. The threshold itself is the lowest score invited to interview | 2026 entry: 2170 against 2320. 2025 entry: 2810 against 3020 | IMPFOI-26-423 |
| Aberdeen | Medicine | A100 | SIMD-based, scored against Aberdeen own applicant pool | 2025 entry, of 3600: lowest invited 2270 contextual home against 2310 non-contextual home Approximate current-scale equivalents, out of 2700: 2270 is about 1680, 2310 is about 1700. | FOI response |
| Pears Cumbria | Medicine | A102 graduate entry | Lower threshold on either test for care leavers, deprived postcodes, free school meals or POLAR4 quintiles 1 and 2 | 2026 entry: UCAT 1910 against 1960 of 2700, GAMSAT 53 against 59. 2025 entry: UCAT 2450 against 2490 of 3600, GAMSAT 50 against 57. The concession has narrowed. The school states the lower thresholds are set so the widening participation share at interview matches the share at application | Published policy, cumbriamed.ac.uk, and the A102 FAQ cited in IMPFOI-26-433 |
| Plymouth | Dentistry | A206 dentistry | Lower threshold and the A-star requirement removed | 2026 entry: 2100 of 2700 contextual against 2120 plus an A-star for home applicants | FOI0174/2026 |
| Newcastle | Dentistry | A206 dentistry | Reduced threshold through the PARTNERS programme, with standard and contextual applicants ranked in separate pools | Cut-offs of 3600: 2022 entry 2690 against 2600 contextual, 2023 entry 2790 against 2690, 2024 entry 2680 against 2600, 2025 entry 2800 against 2770 | FOI response |
| Manchester | Dentistry | A206 dentistry | Widening participation route | 2021 entry, of 3600: lowest WP 2330, the 3rd decile, against lowest standard 2450, the 5th Approximate current-scale equivalents, out of 2700: 2330 is about 1720, 2450 is about 1820. | FOI response |
| Leeds | Dentistry | A100 and A200 | Lower shortlisting bar for widening participation applicants, published as an actual score rather than a rule. Access to Leeds also gives an ABB offer | 2026 entry, of 2700: medicine 1810 WP against 1900 UK. Dentistry 1590 WP against 1720 UK | Published pages |
| UCL | Medicine | A100 | Access UCL. A lower UCAT bar published as an actual score, plus an AAB offer with AA in Biology and Chemistry | 2026 entry, of 2700: 2080 Access UCL against 2190 home, a 110 point reduction. 2025 entry, of 3600: 2600 against 2800 | Published pages |
| Newcastle | Medicine | A100 | PARTNERS route. Standard and contextual applicants are ranked in separate pools, each with its own threshold, and up to two grades are reduced | Thresholds of 3600 by entry year: 2021 core 2820 against contextual 2720, 2022 2800 against 2719, 2023 2820 against 2700, 2024 both 2490. No 2025 figure published | Published thresholds |
3. The UCAT score itself is adjusted upwards
An uplift can carry an applicant over a threshold they would otherwise miss.
| University | Medicine or dentistry | Course | What the contextual route actually gives | Numbers, where the university has given them | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Edinburgh | Medicine | A100 | A Plus Flag applicants do not need to meet the UCAT cut-off at all, receive a 10 per cent uplift to total UCAT, receive additional academic disadvantage points, and are prioritised for interview | Contextual applicants 2025 entry, of 3600: mean at interview 2824, quartiles 2640, 2816, 2981. Offer holders mean 2891. Plus 25 extra SIMD20 places in each of 2025 and 2026 entry Approximate current-scale equivalents, out of 2700: 2824 is about 2090, 2640 is about 1950, 2816 is about 2090, 2981 is above the 9th decile, 2891 is about 2150. | FOI2026/00627 |
| Lincoln | Medicine | A100 | Up to 20 per cent uplift for deprivation, care experience, refugee status, school performance and Lincolnshire residency, plus AAB | Not yet published | Published policy |
| Aberdeen | Medicine | A100 | 10 per cent uplift for SIMD20, 5 per cent for SIMD40 | See section 2 | Published policy |
| Chester | Medicine | A101 graduate | 60 point UCAT uplift, or the GAMSAT equivalent, for UCAT bursary flag, POLAR 1 and 2, free school meals or first generation applicants | Unknown | Published policy |
| Glasgow | Medicine | A100 | Verified widening participation applicants receive a graded adjustment to the UCAT score. Glasgow has still not given the size of that adjustment. No places are set aside for the route. Access Glasgow programmes, and completion of approved pre-entry programmes, can lead to adjusted offers | 2025 entry, home widening participation applicants: 294 applied, 232 were interviewed and 150 received offers. Mean UCAT of 3600 was 2593 at interview and 2612 at offer, about 1920 and 1930 on the current scale, the 60th and 62nd percentiles of the 2024 test cycle. Against home applicants as a whole, 2709 at interview and 2828 at offer, that is 116 points lower at interview and 216 points lower at offer, and since widening participation applicants are counted inside the home figure the gap against non-widening-participation applicants is wider still | FOI 946019, responses of 16 and 18 September 2026 |
| St Andrews | Medicine | A100 | A 10 per cent increase applied to the UCAT score itself, used in the ranking for invitation to interview. Criteria include the 40 per cent most deprived Scottish postcodes, care experience, estrangement and refugee status | The size of the uplift is published. Lowest interviewed 2025 entry, home, 2230 of 3600, which is ~1650 of 2700 | Published pages |
| UCLan | Medicine | A100 | A 10 per cent uplift applied to the UCAT total itself. Since UCLan gives no weight at all to academic qualifications, the uplift is the only thing that moves an application. Separately an 8 UCAS point reduction, AAB, for care leavers and postcode criteria | 2025 entry: lowest contextual invited 2170 against 2400 non-contextual of 3600, which is ~1600 against ~1780 of 2700 | FOI 3920 and FOI 3962, WhatDoTheyKnow |
4. Contextual status earns points inside a scoring system
Worth knowing because the points are fixed and published, so the effect can be calculated.
| University | Medicine or dentistry | Course | What the contextual route actually gives | Numbers, where the university has given them | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Birmingham | Medicine | A100 | POLAR4 quintile is 15 per cent of the pre-interview score, scored 0.6 to 1.5 points, alongside GCSE at 45 per cent and UCAT at 40 per cent | 2024-25 interviewed, of 3600: lowest 2430 contextual against 2680 home standard. Mean 2804.3 contextual against 2958.8 standard Approximate current-scale equivalents, out of 2700: 2430 is about 1800, 2680 is about 1980. | Published statistics |
| Hull York | Medicine | A100 | Up to 15 contextual points inside a total that also scores GCSEs out of 35, UCAT decile out of 35 and SJT band out of 15 | Receipt of a UCAT bursary is worth 8 of the 15 points. Separately a UCAT decile of 4 or above opens a fast-track interview route | Published policy |
| Exeter | Medicine | A100 | A widening participation flag adds 5 points to the Exeter Score, out of a maximum of 105, plus AAB rather than A-star AA | Published scoring matrix in full | Published admissions policy |
| Oxford | Medicine | A100 | A contextualised GCSE measure is combined 50:50 with the normalised UCAT score. Care experienced and free school meals applicants are automatically flagged for strong interview recommendation. About 80 extra applicants are reviewed after the preliminary shortlist | Unknown | Published policy |
| Keele | Medicine | A100 | One additional shortlisting point, plus a full grade reduction. Eight eligibility indicators | Unknown | Published policy |
| Liverpool | Dentistry | A200 dentistry | IMD deciles 1 and 2, care experienced, or Liverpool Scholars. Flexibility on UCAT and MMI performance, ABB offer | 2025 entry: 236 applications, 67 interviewed, 18 offered, 10 accepted. Mean UCAT at interview 2589 contextual against 2671 home, the 6th decile against the 7th | FOI/2627/020 |
5. Whole courses that exist only for widening participation
Competition on these is often far lighter than the standard route.
| University | Medicine or dentistry | Course | What the contextual route actually gives | Numbers, where the university has given them | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lancaster | Medicine | A104 Gateway | Widening participation only. Applicants must meet at least two criteria AND must not meet the standard A100 requirements. Ranked purely on total UCAT | 2024: 106 applications, 53 eligible, 34 interviews, 23 offers. A100 that year had 1004 UK non-contextual applications. Around half of applicants were screened out on eligibility | FOI response |
| Leicester | Medicine | A199 foundation | Widening access foundation year, six years. 15 of the 38 places are ring-fenced for East Midlands applicants, who face a lower threshold, 75 out of 96, against 79 nationally | As shown | F4665 |
| Sheffield | Medicine | A101 graduate | Widening participation only. Applicants must meet two or more of ten criteria | 24 home places for 2027 entry, no international places | Published policy |
| Bristol | Dentistry | A208 Gateway | Deliberately capped. Applicants predicted AAB or above are INELIGIBLE. UK applicants with specific widening participation markers only | Unknown | Published policy |
| Plymouth | Dentistry | A205 dentistry | No admissions test at all. Applicants must meet three contextual indicators. UK students only | Unknown | Published policy |
| St Andrews | Medicine | Gateway LQV9 | Separate gateway route for Scottish widening access applicants | Unknown | Published policy |
| UEA | Medicine | Gateway Year | Separate Medicine with a Gateway Year programme alongside the widening participation scheme | Unknown | Published policy |
| Leeds | Medicine | I900 Gateway Year to Medicine | Widening participation only. Leeds publishes a shortlisting score for this route and for no other group on it | 2026 entry: 1610 of 2700, the 2nd national decile. 2025 entry 2310 and 2024 entry 2370, both of 3600 | Published pages |
6. A grade reduction and nothing more
Useful, but it does not help an applicant whose UCAT is the obstacle.
| University | Medicine or dentistry | Course | What the contextual route actually gives | Numbers, where the university has given them | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aston | Medicine | A100 | One or two grade reduction for UCAT bursary, free school meals, care leaver, refugee or POLAR4 Q1 and Q2 | Unknown | Published pages |
| Bangor | Medicine | A100 | AAB for low participation postcodes or socio-economic criteria | Unknown | Published pages |
| Bristol | Medicine | A100 | Usually two grades below standard. No reduction in UCAT threshold and no stated allocation of places | Unknown | Published statement |
| City St George's | Medicine | A100 | Two grade reduction for Group 1 or Group 2 eligible applicants | Unknown | Published pages |
| Dundee | Medicine | A100 | ABB, or AABBB at Higher. SIMD deprivation, care experience, refugee status | Unknown | Published pages |
| Nottingham | Medicine | A100 | AAB standard contextual, ABB enhanced. Home fee status and non-independent school required | Unknown | Published pages |
| Sheffield | Medicine | A100 | AAB including Chemistry or Biology for eligible applicants. Sheffield states in terms that there is no reduction in UCAT for Access applicants | Not applicable. All applicants, Access included, must reach the top 25 percentiles and SJT band 1 or 2 | Published pages |
| Southampton | Medicine | A100 | AAB instead of AAA for school leavers meeting two contextual flags, with the same GCSE requirement as everyone else. Contextual school leavers are ranked in a separate UCAT stream. Separately, BM6 is a six year widening participation course with its own places | 2026 entry: UCAT cut-off 1920 contextual against 1950 standard, of 2700. 2025 entry: 2500 against 2610, of 3600, which restates to about 1850 against 1930. The concession has narrowed from about 80 points to 30. Of 812 school leavers interviewed for 2026 entry, 118 were contextual, and of 438 offers, 50 were contextual. BM6: 416 applications, 207 interviews, 121 offers, 37 places | Published pages and FOI F-26-0266 |
| Sunderland | Medicine | A100 | AAB for North East and Cumbria postcodes plus widening participation criteria | Unknown | Published pages |
7. No contextual route, or none that changes the bar
Worth knowing so that no one wastes a choice expecting one.
| University | Medicine or dentistry | Course | What the contextual route actually gives | Numbers, where the university has given them | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cambridge | Medicine | A100 | No contextual offers. Contextual information is handled only through an adjusted GCSE score | Not applicable | FOI-2026-785 |
| Kent and Medway | Medicine | A100 | Every application is contextualised against the applicant school average, so the standard and contextual offers are both AAB. No lower offer exists | Not applicable | Published policy |
| King's | Dentistry | A205 and A202 dentistry | Contextual information is considered but no contextual offers are made. Every applicant must meet the standard requirements | Not applicable | Published policy |
| Surrey | Medicine | A101 graduate | No contextual offer and no reduction in requirements. Widening participation handled through scholarships, selected on MMI rank, so the academic bar is unchanged | Not applicable | Published policy |
| Hertfordshire | Medicine | A100 | No contextual offer, no reduced grades and no widening participation pathway published. Course is international only | Not applicable | Published pages |
| St Mary's Twickenham | Medicine | A100 | No defined scheme found, and the course is closed to home students | Not applicable | Published pages |
| UEA (Norwich) | Medicine | A100 | No contextual route on the standard course. No reduction in UCAT threshold, academic offer or GCSE requirement, and UEA holds no data broken down by standard or contextual route. A separate Medicine with a Gateway Year course exists. | Not applicable | FOI_26-182 |
| UEA (Norwich) | Medicine | A101 graduate entry | No contextual route. Same position as A100: nothing is adjusted and no standard or contextual split is recorded. | Not applicable | FOI_26-182 |
| Swansea | Medicine | A101 graduate entry | No contextual route. Swansea answered the contextual question with "None". The only adjustment of any kind is a lower UCAT threshold for Welsh-resident applicants, which is a domicile matter rather than a widening participation route, and Swansea has not said how much lower it is. GCSE English and Maths are checked for presence only, so there is no GCSE requirement to reduce. | Not applicable. No places are set aside | FOI 043/26-27 |
Compiled by Crack The UCAT from universities’ own published pages and from Freedom of Information responses. Figures describe completed admissions cycles and are a guide, not a prediction. Free to read, and free to link to — please credit and link back to this page rather than copying the tables elsewhere.