UK medical school interviews for 2027 entry: MMIs and panels

Interview types: MMIs, panels and more

The Medical Schools Council (MSC) says interviews aren’t just about testing your knowledge. Schools want to see how you communicate, why you’re interested in medicine and whether you have the right qualities to become a good doctor. The MSC suggests finding out as much as you can from the school you’re interviewing at.

A multiple mini-interview (MMI) is a series of short interview scenarios called stations, each assessing specific qualities. Stations range from discussing your personal statement and experience, as in a panel interview, to practical scenarios with an actor playing a role, and often include teamwork and communication tasks. There’s no single number of stations: UCL’s page, which names no entry year, describes up to 8 five-minute stations, about 50 minutes in all, and Bristol’s 2027 listing describes six 5-minute stations, each assessed by 3 people.

A panel interview has two or more interviewers, who could be clinical and admissions staff, a senior student or a member of the public. It usually lasts around 20 to 30 minutes, though some universities hold longer interviews, or two interviews over two days. A structured panel follows set questions; in a semi-structured one, your answers can shape the questions, so it feels more like a conversation.

Some schools run assessment centres, which can take up to a whole day and mix tasks such as written work, group interviews and individual panel interviews. Some interview online, including asynchronous interviews, where you record answers to set questions and send the videos to the admissions team.

Interview formats by school for 2027 entry

This is how eleven schools describe their interviews for courses starting in 2027, mostly in their Medical Schools Council listings. The schools supply this information themselves and it may change, so always check the school’s own website.

Edinburgh’s listing doesn’t describe its “multi-station assessment”, so check Edinburgh’s own pages. At Cambridge the format depends on the College; Cambridge says most applicants have 1 or 2 interviews lasting 35 minutes to an hour in total.

When interviews happen

Timing depends on the school. Some examples for 2027 entry:

• UCAT results reach universities in early November. The last UCAT 2026 test day was Thursday 24 September 2026.
• Oxford usually tells applicants between mid-November and early December whether they’ve been shortlisted, sometimes with only a week’s notice. Medicine interviews are online, with two colleges, on Monday 14 or Tuesday 15 December 2026, and can’t be rearranged.
• Cambridge sends most invitations in November, though some may come in early December. Its main interview period runs from Monday 7 to Friday 18 December 2026.
• Leeds holds face-to-face interviews for 2027 entry on Monday 4, Tuesday 5 and Wednesday 6 January 2027.
• UCL invites candidates on a rolling basis from December to the end of March (its page names no entry year).
• King’s College London aims to tell all applicants its final decisions by the end of May at the latest.

The UCAT and who gets an interview

The UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test) is used by a consortium of UK and partner universities to help select applicants for medicine and dentistry, and each university uses the results in its own way. Most look at the total of your cognitive subtest scores. Some set a threshold score, which some decide each year, and a growing number also use the situational judgement test (SJT).

Ten of the eleven schools say how they use the UCAT. Nine link it to shortlisting or selection for interview, and Manchester sets a threshold:

The UCAT Consortium’s advice is to read each university’s own information carefully and contact it if anything isn’t clear. Where a threshold is set each year, a past year’s score isn’t a 2027 cut-off.

How to prepare

The Medical Schools Council’s tips:

• Check your interview format and platform in advance.
• Practise answering questions to time, and speaking clearly and confidently, especially if you’ll record answers on camera.
• If your interview is online, dress professionally and choose a quiet, neutral background.
• Try a mock MMI with help from a teacher or adviser. The MSC’s mock MMI guide for teachers covers role-play, ethics, communication, data interpretation and teamwork stations.

It helps to know what’s being assessed. UCL’s MMI, for example, looks at areas including academic curiosity and interest in healthcare, motivation and understanding of the career, problem solving, professional attitudes and values, teamwork and communication skills.

The MSC’s statement on the core values and attributes needed to study medicine sets out what’s expected of applicants, such as motivation and a genuine interest in medicine, resilience, communication and teamwork, and respect, empathy, honesty and integrity. Schools assess these through personal statements, interviews and relevant experience, so reflect on your experiences and pick out examples that show them.

Work experience: what counts

The MSC says schools want to see that you understand what a career in medicine involves, and what counts is what you learn and how you reflect on it, rather than the setting. Paid and unpaid roles both count, a weekend job can count if you reflect on what you learned, and shadowing a doctor helps but isn’t essential. Caring roles, charities, helplines, youth work, food banks and observing healthcare, in person or online, can all be meaningful.

None of the eleven schools in the table requires clinical work experience for 2027 entry, but the Medical Schools Council says gaining relevant experience is an important part of your application, and several schools encourage it. UCL may assess your reflections on it at interview, Bristol asks invited applicants for a form recording their work experience, and Cambridge strongly advises it.