Medicine at Cambridge prepares you to become one of tomorrow's doctors, reflecting the latest advances in medical sciences and practice.
Study medical sciences for the first 3 years, then apply your knowledge as a clinical student on a placement for the last 3 years.
The key to being a great clinician is combining practical skills with an excellent grounding in the science underlying practice. This course gives you just that.
The course lasts 6 years:
You’ll also have opportunities to pursue research and project work throughout the course.
This course is for you if:
If this is your first degree and you successfully complete the first 3 years of the course, you’ll graduate with a BA (Hons) degree.
If you successfully complete the full course, you will graduate with a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MB, BChir).
Clinical teaching is delivered on the wards and in general practice. There are also additional opportunities to attend general and specialist outpatient clinics.
The course is based in Cambridge. Some of the course is also delivered in regional hospitals or practices, to take advantage of the different educational opportunities they offer.
This Cambridge Medical course embodies teaching from world experts, progressive technology and modern facilities.
Along with all other students at Cambridge, you'll also have access to:
Watch the video to find out what a day in the life of a Cambridge Medicine student is like:
When you go to university, you’ll need to consider two main costs – your tuition fees and your living costs (sometimes referred to as maintenance costs).
Your living costs will include costs related to your studies that are not covered by your tuition fees. There are some general study costs that will apply for all students – you can find details of these costs here.
Other additional course costs for Medicine are detailed below. If you have any queries these costs, please contact the Department.
To buy and maintain essential equipment for the course, the estimated cost is £60. Equipment includes:
You will also need:
Costs for the Preparing for Patients modules vary and are detailed below. You are expected to cover the costs detailed below, plus basic subsistence costs.
Clinical placements start from year 4 of your course and will vary from student to student. You will be on placement at hospitals across the East Anglia Region.
The types of cost you will be expected to cover and those covered by the School of Clinical Medicine are detailed below.
In year 5 there is an opportunity to go abroad for 7 weeks. If you do, the estimated cost is around £3,000. College and national grants may be available to help you cover these costs.
You may be able to get funding from the NHS to help pay for your studies. Find out more about the NHS Bursary.
The University respects and adheres to the GMC's guidance on supporting disabled learners. You can view the guidance on the GMC's Welcomed and valued website.
In your first 3 years, your College and the Accessibility and Disability Resource Centre (ADRC) will arrange most of your support.
During your clinical studies, the School of Clinical Medicine can arrange support. The School has a Student Academic Support Lead. They are a member of academic staff and they facilitate learning for disabled students.
As a graduate you’ll be able to get provisional registration with the General Medical Council (GMC). The GMC has certain expectations about attitudes, behaviour and performance of medical students.
You can then go anywhere in the country to complete two years as a junior doctor. These are known as Foundation Years. At the end of these two years you can register with the GMC as a doctor.
If you’re graduating from 2025 onwards, you’ll need to take the Medical Licensing Assessment (MLA).
This is a test introduced by the General Medical Council to test the core knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to practise safely in the UK.
We enable students to develop the excellent communication, clinical, interpersonal and professional skills required for good medical practice.
As a graduate you’ll be ready for a range of careers across:
If you’re interested in an academic research career, our MB/PhD Programme leads to the MB, BChir and PhD degrees. Read about the MB/PhD on the School of Clinical Medicine website.
Course outlineThe first 3 years involve lectures, practical classes that include dissections, and small-group supervisions. There are typically 20 to 25 teaching hours each week.
The last 3 years focus on learning in clinical settings: at the patients’ bedside, in outpatient clinics and in GP doctor surgeries. Teaching is supported by seminars, tutorials and discussion groups.
Your ongoing progress is reviewed each week and term by your College supervisors.
Formal assessment, which determines your ability to proceed with the course, includes written and practical examinations, coursework submission and clinical assessments.
Practical work is undertaken and assessed in all years of the degree programme.
You won't usually be able to resit any of your exams, except for professional qualifying exams.
This is the pre-clinical part of the course where you study core medical science and clinical medicine.
We’ll provide you with the scientific basis that will allow you to develop your medical career to the full.
The main areas of learning are covered by courses in:
The clinical strand of Years 1 and 2 involves:
This is the pre-clinical part of the course where you specialise in one of a wide range of other subjects. You might see this referred to as intercalation, to qualify for the BA degree.
Preparing for Patients continues in your third year, regardless of the subject you choose to study. During this year, you visit community-based agencies.
For further information about the first 3 year of the course see the Faculty of Biology website.
Your time on clinical placements will be shared between:
Throughout your clinical studies, you will build on your biomedical science education and develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes required to practise clinical medicine.
Through all clinical years, the course is built around many major themes, including:
Following an introductory course, each of the three years has its own focus:
Year 4 is about core clinical practice.
Year 5 is about specialist clinical practice.
Year 6 is about applied clinical practice.
During clinical studies, you have weekly small-group clinical supervisions with junior doctors to develop and monitor your clinical skills.
For further information about this course see the School of Clinical Medicine website.
It’s really important to think carefully about which course you want to study before you apply.
In rare cases, it may be possible to change course once you’ve joined the University. You will usually have to get agreement from your College and the relevant departments. It’s not guaranteed that your course change will be approved.
You might also have to:
You can also apply to change to:
You can't apply to this course until you're at Cambridge. You would usually apply when you have completed 1 year or more of your original Cambridge course.
You should contact your College’s Admissions Office if you’re thinking of changing your course. They will be able to give you advice and explain how changing courses works.
Entry requirementsThe entry requirements listed are for entry in 2025 or deferred entry in 2026. Entry requirements for future years will be published in due course. Check our guidance on choosing high school subjects.
A level: A*A*A
IB: 41-42 points, with 776 at Higher Level
Other qualifications: Check which other qualifications we accept
You can't apply to this course if you:
We strongly recommend:
You should also check the Key Criteria for Medical Admissions.
To apply to most of our Colleges for Medicine, you will need A level/IB Higher Level or the equivalent in:
You will usually need A*/7 in Chemistry and another science or mathematics subject.
If you’re taking a science subject not listed above, please contact the College you wish to apply to for advice.
Chemistry, Mathematics and Further Mathematics may not always be the best combination of subjects for this course. Candidates taking these 3 A levels only are advised to contact a College before applying.
To apply to Corpus Christi, Gonville and Caius, Fitzwilliam, Girton, Homerton, Murray Edwards, Newnham, Robinson, or Selwyn, you will need A level/IB Higher Level or the equivalent in:
Please note that in the past three admissions rounds, 93% of applicants for Medicine offered three or more science/mathematics A Levels and, of these, 19 per cent were successful in obtaining a place. Of the applicants who offered only two science/mathematics A Levels, fewer than 3% were successful in gaining a place.
You will usually need A*/7 in Chemistry and another science or mathematics subject.
If you’re taking a subject not listed above, please contact the College you wish to apply to for advice.
Most Medicine students (who had studied A levels and started at Cambridge in 2018, 2019 and 2023) achieved at least A*A*A* (82% of entrants).
The majority of IB students achieved at least 44 points overall and/or grades 777 at Higher Level.
All A level entrants had studied Chemistry and almost all had studied at least two of:
Check our advice on choosing your high school subjects. You should also check if there are any required subjects for your course when you apply.
The minimum offer level and subject requirements outline the minimum you'll usually need to achieve to get an offer from Cambridge.
In some cases, you'll get a higher or more challenging offer. Colleges set higher offer requirements for a range of reasons. If you'd like to find out more about why we do this, check the information about offers above the minimum requirement on the entry requirements page.
Some Colleges usually make offers above the minimum offer level. Find out more on our qualifications page.
All undergraduate admissions decisions are the responsibility of the Cambridge Colleges. Please contact the relevant College admissions office if you have any queries.
You will need to register in advance for this test.
Applicants to A100
For UCAT results, we will look at an applicant’s overall cognitive subtest score. We will not be using the situational judgement score as part of our assessment for 2025 entry.
We will use results as part of our selection for interview and when making offers. We will consider your results alongside all the other information we know about you.
You won’t need to submit any written work before your interview. You may be asked to do some reading instead, but we will let you know if this is the case.
If you get offered a place on this course we’ll need to check a few extra things with you. We’ll explain what you need to do when we send the offer letter out to you.
Everything you tell us will be confidential. Some of the usual extra checks include:
Minor misdemeanours will not necessarily prevent you from entering the medical profession.
You should declare these in your UCAS application. We will send you the relevant forms to complete if you are offered a place.
You must be a keen scientist with a sound scientific understanding.
As selection for medical school implies selection for the medical profession, admissions decisions are informed by national guidance on what makes a good doctor. For example:
The GMC has expectations regarding the attitudes, behaviour and performance of medical students.
Trainee doctors at Cambridge must satisfy the GMC's fitness to practise requirements, both when applying and throughout the course.
These requirements are in place to ensure the safety of patients.
If you want to study this course as your second degree you need to:
You can complete the course in 5 years, moving from the end of Year 2 to clinical studies.
You may also be interested in the accelerated Graduate Course in Medicine (A101).
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We recommend that you look thoroughly at the course and University information contained on these webpages and consider coming to visit us on an Open Day, rather than relying solely on statistical comparison.
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