Studying Medicine & Dentistry in England: Universities, Costs and Realistic Alternatives

How selective the English system is

Applications for medicine and dentistry in England run centrally through UCAS, and a place is decided on far more than a school-leaving grade. A standardised aptitude test – usually the UCAT, at a few faculties the BMAT – counts alongside a written personal statement, a school reference and a structured selection interview, most often in the form of a Multiple Mini Interview. Only a small number of medicine choices may be named per application round, the window for medicine closes considerably earlier than for other subjects, and the number of places open to international applicants is capped.

The system is unusually transparent: every faculty publishes in detail what it weights and how. It is also unforgiving. It rewards applicants who have built their entire final school year around it, and an excellent Abitur on its own is not enough. For applicants from the German-speaking world, England is therefore rarely a realistic single plan – which is why the second half of this article looks at what the alternative actually is.

State universities: tuition fees for international students

England has more than 30 medical faculties at state universities. For EU citizens and other international students without British residency status, the considerably higher 'overseas' fees apply rather than the lower home fees for British nationals – a difference that has affected German applicants since Brexit too.

The range is enormous: between the cheapest and the most expensive faculty, the difference is more than £40,000 per year – for a five- to six-year programme. A complete medical degree in England costs international students between approximately €230,000 and over €420,000 in tuition fees alone, depending on the university, and that excludes living costs.

Private alternative: University of Buckingham

The University of Buckingham is the only independent private medical school in Great Britain – and it sits outside the rest of the system in several respects. It runs its own selection process rather than relying on the UCAT, and it does not work to the fixed, NHS-funded quota for international places that constrains the state faculties.

The programme lasts 4.5 years, shorter than the usual five to six, and starts twice a year, in September and January. Fees are approximately £40,000 to £45,000 per year for the complete programme, regardless of students' country of origin – making a total of approximately £180,000 to £200,000. For families who have England firmly in mind, it is usually the one British name worth looking at properly.

Dentistry: faculties and costs

For dentistry (BDS), the picture is similar to medicine, but with fewer locations in England. Selection works the same way, with an aptitude test alongside statement and interview. The following figures are rough approximations rounded to the nearest hundred.

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The realistic alternative: a place someone can actually plan for you

We do not publish requirement lists or dates on this site – not for England and not for anywhere else. They differ from faculty to faculty and change from one intake to the next, and a list written today would be the wrong one by the time it mattered to you.

What we do instead is look at your case. Send us your profile: your school certificate, any study records you already have, and the countries you could imagine living in. We then tell you at which university, in which country, we can place you – and where we can get you in on a timeline you can genuinely plan around. Our network of official partner universities for medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, nursing and veterinary medicine is the largest selection you will get for that, and if you are already enrolled somewhere we check the highest possible entry point for you, often into one of the final two years.

None of that costs you anything to find out: book a free study consultation, by phone or video call, with your parents if you would like them there.

Tuition fees and living costs at a glance

In addition to tuition fees, international students in England must budget for living costs themselves. In London, this is typically £1,400 to £1,800 per month; outside London, it is more like £1,000 to £1,300 – rent is by far the largest outgoing. Over a full degree, that turns an already expensive tuition figure into a considerably larger one, which is the single most common reason English faculties drop out of the shortlist in our consultations.