University of Oxford UNIQ Summer Schools Medicine Residential Course

It's hard to get in. UNIQ processes 700 to 900 applications a year for 80 Medicine places, which works out at roughly 1 in 9 to 1 in 11, and it describes its academic standard as very high.

To apply at all, you need to be in your first year of sixth form at a UK state school or college, or home educated. You also need to be a settled UK resident or expect home fee status when you apply to university, and be under 18 at the residential, with narrow exceptions for some students in Northern Ireland or in an offset year. Students at independent schools can't apply, even with a bursary, and neither can anyone who has already done UNIQ or holds more than one completed A level. Beyond those rules, UNIQ weighs your grades alongside your background, and says its grade bar may be lower than you expect.

• Grades

  UNIQ normally expects at least six GCSEs with one or more at grade 7 or A (or equivalent), or in Scotland six National 5s with at least one A.

• Background

  Care experience is strongly prioritized, and UNIQ also looks at past or present free school meals eligibility and may check your home postcode against the Index of Multiple Deprivation.

• Islands and home education

  Students from the Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey can now apply, and home-educated students name a referee for their GCSEs.

• Extenuating circumstances

  If something held back your results, the form has a section to explain it, and UNIQ takes it into account.

You arrive on Monday, leave on Friday and spend four nights in an Oxford college, with the Medicine teaching during the day on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Current lecturers give the lectures, which mirror the first year of Oxford's six-year course.

Midweek there's a mock tutorial that shows how undergraduates prepare for one, plus a demonstration interview and broader sessions such as one on being a doctor in the 21st century, with medical students on hand as ambassadors throughout. Evenings bring optional social activities, a chance to explore Oxford and other colleges, and time in the common room with ambassadors. The week ends with a mini conference for all the UNIQ students in Oxford that week. UNIQ calls the residential very intensive and warns there's little time for other work, so finish any school project due around then before you go.

Each college is run for the week by a Site Manager, who is a senior student ambassador, and the ambassadors who take you to sessions are current Oxford undergraduates who live in the college with you. So the people around you day to day are students, with the UNIQ team behind them.

• Rooms

  You get your own lockable bedroom. Shared bathrooms are common in the older buildings and sit on gender-segregated corridors, although an ensuite room may be on a mixed corridor.

• College

  UNIQ assigns your college and you only find out which one when you arrive, though it tries to place you in one that offers your subject.

• Food

  Every college offers a vegetarian option, but halal, kosher and other religious diets can't be guaranteed, so tell UNIQ your needs as soon as you're offered a place and it will make other arrangements if the college can't provide something suitable.

• Faith and fasting

  There are chances to pray through the day and prayer mats to borrow. A fasting student whose health declines will be asked to break the fast or go home.

Very little. UNIQ charges nothing to students or schools and pays for your travel, college room, meals and teaching. If you miss UNIQ's travel deadlines or lose your ticket, though, you may have to buy your own, and fuel isn't reimbursed if someone drives you. Snacks, souvenirs and anything you forget to pack are on you, and UNIQ asks families who are worried about any cost to get in touch.

Applications go only through the UNIQ website, and they aren't first come, first served, so a complete application sent near the deadline counts the same as an early one.

1. 1

   Applications open on 15 December 2026. You pick a first and second choice of course, and UNIQ may offer you your second choice if Medicine is full.

2. 2

   Give your grades and background details and nominate a teacher at your school, using the extenuating circumstances section if your results don't reflect your ability.

3. 3

   Submit the full form by 1 p.m. on 19 January 2027, because unsubmitted or late applications aren't considered and there's no confirmation email, only an application submitted screen.

4. 4

   Decisions arrive by email by early March 2027, and you have one week to accept an offer.

5. 5

   Successful students attend a spring regional event and an online briefing in May or June before the residential week.