UK Medicine Offers 2027: Dates, Firm and Insurance

UK Medicine Offers 2027: Dates, Firm and Insurance

UK medical schools must decide on 2027-entry applications by 12 May 2027. You cannot reply to any offer until every choice has decided. Then your reply date is 5 May 2027 if your last decision came by 31 March, or 2 June 2027 if it came by 12 May.

That timing shapes the one decision that matters. You choose a firm and an insurance once, and on results day UCAS will not let you swap them. So our view is to firm the offer whose conditions you are most likely to meet at a school you would be glad to attend, and insure lower, not to rank by reputation. If you are on a reserve list as well, read the UK medicine reserve list guide before you reply: at Queen's Belfast, holding another medical school's offer takes you off its list.

Every UCAS and school page quoted below was checked on 7 November 2026. UCAS's Clearing page still shows last cycle's dates; that is noted where it matters.

The rules you are replying inside

Medicine applications closed on the early UCAS deadline. Queen's Belfast's 2027-entry FAQ gives "6.00 pm on 15 October 2026". That puts every on-time medicine applicant in UCAS's earliest decision group (UCAS, types of offers):

"12 May 2027 – if you submit your application by 13 January 2027."

"If a uni you've applied to doesn't make a decision by the appropriate deadline, that choice will be automatically made unsuccessful. You can only reply to any offers once you have a decision back from all your choices."

UCAS's replying to your offers page sets the 2027 reply dates by the date of your last decision:

UCAS also says "Check your application to see your personal deadline." The date shown in your application is the one to diarise.

When medicine offers arrive at each school

Schools decide at their own pace inside the 12 May limit. What their own pages say:

Oxford's pages returned HTTP 403 to us on 7 November 2026, so we quote none of its dates.

The practical result: if one school decides in late January and another in May, you wait. You cannot reply to the January offer until May. UCAS lets you speed this up by withdrawing from a choice still pending: "you can permanently withdraw from any outstanding choices to reply to offers you've already received." It adds that a withdrawn choice "will not be available to you later". Do this only if you would turn that school down anyway.

Choosing firm and insurance for medicine

UCAS's definitions are short. A firm acceptance "is your first choice." An insurance is "the back-up choice to a conditional firm acceptance", and UCAS advises: "go for something with lower offer conditions – make sure it's somewhere you'd still be happy to go to though."

The rule that makes this a one-time decision:

"You can't choose between your firm and insurance when you get your results, so make sure you're happy with which is your firm and which is your insurance before you reply."

UCAS's Clearing page repeats it: "No, you can't swap your firm and insurance choices." To go to your insurance after meeting your firm, you would have to go through Clearing.

Our view: for medicine, firm the offer you are most likely to meet, then insure one with lower conditions. Newcastle's 2027 policy says its offers are "typically AAA" for A-level students, "ABB for contextual offer students". In a constructed scenario where you hold a standard AAA offer and a contextual ABB offer, and your predictions are AAB, the contextual offer is the one your grades can secure. The basis is UCAS's own logic: your insurance only counts "if you don't meet the conditions of your firm choice, but you do meet the conditions of your insurance."

The countercase: if two offers have the same conditions, choose by where you want to live and train for five or six years, because the conditions no longer separate them. And if you hold an unconditional offer, there is no insurance to choose: UCAS says "by accepting an unconditional offer, you are committing to go to that uni or college, so you can't make an insurance choice."

Reply combinations, in UCAS's words

• Conditional firm only (CF): "You're in if you meet the conditions."
• Conditional firm and conditional insurance (CF + CI): "you'll be in at the first if you meet the conditions. If not, you might have met the conditions of the second".
• Conditional firm and unconditional insurance (CF + UI): "If not, you'll definitely be on the second."
• Unconditional firm (UF): "You're in!"

If your only other offer is not medicine, the fifth-choice backup course guide covers whether to insure it.

Declining an offer or withdrawing

When you reply, you decline every offer you are not holding: "You can only accept one firm choice and one insurance choice (if you choose to have one). You must decline all other offers."

If you change your mind after replying, UCAS sets two windows:

1. Within 14 days of replying: "contact one of our advisers to make any changes to your replies."
2. After 14 days: "You'll need to speak to them about changing your replies, and then call us". UCAS adds it is "unable to guarantee you can change them."

After 22 July 2027, "No reply swaps are possible". If UCAS declines your offers automatically because you missed the reply date, you have 14 days to call UCAS and swap the decline.

Withdrawing completely is different. UCAS's declining your firm place page says: "If you have accepted an offer, you need to phone the unis that are holding the place(s) for you, and ask them to withdraw your application." If you have not accepted an offer, "you can withdraw your whole application online."

Deferred entry: ask the school, in writing

UCAS offers no single deferral rule after you apply; each school sets its own. Newcastle's 2027 admissions policy:

"Applicants may make deferral requests after their applications have been submitted. These will be considered on a case-by-case basis. Once offers have been made, decisions on any further requests to defer entry will be decided after A level examination results are published in August."

Queen's Belfast says "There is no plan to defer any applicants to 2028 entry", except where more candidates meet their conditions than there are places. So a deferral request is a request, and the answer may come in August. Send it to the school's medical admissions address, not to UCAS.

Constructed example: a deferral request email

Constructed example, written by us, not a real applicant's email. Context (invented): an offer holder at a school whose policy allows case-by-case deferral requests.

Subject: Deferral request, UCAS ID 123-456-7890, Medicine A100

Dear Medical Admissions Team,

I hold a conditional offer for Medicine (A100) for September 2027 entry, and I have accepted it as my firm choice. I am writing to ask whether I may defer my place to September 2028.

I have been offered a 10-month role as a healthcare assistant on a care-of-the-elderly ward, starting in September 2027. I would like to take it before starting the course.

I understand from your admissions policy that deferral requests made after an offer are decided after A-level results are published in August. I will still sit my exams in summer 2027 and meet the conditions of my offer.

Please let me know if you need anything else from me.

Yours sincerely, Pallavi Example

It is 129 words, subject line included. It works because it gives the UCAS ID and course code in the subject line, says the offer is already firmed, gives one concrete reason in one sentence, and shows the applicant read the school's own deferral rule. It asks a question rather than announcing a decision.

Missed grades on results day

If you miss your firm conditions, your firm school decides first, then your insurance. Contact your firm school before anything else. Three published rules matter:

• Newcastle: results must be "confirmed and received by mid-August". For A-level re-marks, "If the programme is full, a place will be guaranteed for deferred entry one year later". Home applicants appealing a grade must inform the school "no later than 31st August".
• Cambridge: its Summer Pool considers "an offer holder who has narrowly missed the conditions of your original offer".
• UCAS: if your firm is still pending, "They may still be considering your place, even if you didn't meet the required grades."

Clearing for medicine does happen, but not everywhere. Birmingham's MBChB admissions statistics for 2026 entry record that "10 applicants successfully obtained a place through Clearing in August 2026." UCAS's Clearing page, as checked, gives last cycle's dates ("2 July until 19 October 2026") and has not yet published 2027's. The Extra and Clearing guide for medicine covers the routes in full.

Offer checklist for 2027 entry

1. Write down each school's decision timing from the table and your application.
2. Wait for every decision, or withdraw a pending choice you would turn down anyway.
3. List each offer's conditions beside your predicted grades.
4. Firm the one you are most likely to meet at a school you would attend; insure lower.
5. Reply by the date in your application, 5 May or 2 June 2027 for a medicine applicant not using Extra.
6. Diarise 22 July 2027, the last day for reply swaps.
7. Email any deferral request to the school, citing its own policy.
8. Save your firm and insurance schools' phone numbers for results day.

Questions about UK medicine offers

When do medicine offers come out for 2027 entry?

Between January and May 2027. Cambridge gives October applicants their outcome in late January, Glasgow processes most offers by the end of March, and every school must decide by 12 May 2027.

What is the UCAS reply date for medicine in 2027?

It depends on your last decision: 5 May 2027 if it arrives by 31 March, and 2 June 2027 if it arrives by 12 May. Your application shows your own date.

Can I swap my firm and insurance after results day?

No. UCAS says "You can't choose between your firm and insurance when you get your results". To reach your insurance after meeting your firm, you would go through Clearing.

Can I accept a medicine offer before my other schools decide?

Only by withdrawing from the choices still pending. UCAS says a withdrawn choice "will not be available to you later".

How do I decline a medicine offer after accepting it?

Phone the university holding your place and ask it to withdraw your application, or call UCAS. Within 14 days of replying, UCAS advisers can change your replies.

Review the writing you send next

The deferral email above is short and goes to one admissions team. If this cycle ends without a place, the next long document is a second UCAS medicine personal statement. Get a free Quick Review of your UCAS medicine personal statement against GradPilot's UCAS medicine rubric. It reads how your study and experience outside school prepared you for medicine, and whether each answer stands on its own evidence.

More UK medicine guides:

• UK medicine reserve lists: which schools keep one, and why you keep your offer.
• UCAS 2027 deadlines and personal statement timeline: the dates before you applied.
• Reapplying to medicine in the UK: each school's rules for a second application.
• Medical school essays hub: every medical application guide. International offer holders: Edinburgh's deposit rule and other international specifics are in Indian students applying to UK medicine.

Sources

Retrieved 7 November 2026, except where noted.

• UCAS, Types of offers (2027 entry): decision deadlines, reply only after all decisions, unconditional offers.
• UCAS, Replying to your offers (2027 entry): firm and insurance, reply dates, withdrawing pending choices, changing replies, 22 July 2027.
• UCAS, Declining your firm place: withdrawing after accepting.
• UCAS, What is Clearing? (2026 dates shown): no firm and insurance swap; Clearing window.
• University of Cambridge, Application decisions: late-January outcomes; Summer Pool.
• University of Glasgow, Medicine MBChB: decision timing.
• King's College London, Medicine MBBS (undated cycle): final decisions by end of May.
• Newcastle University, MBBS Admissions Policy 2027 Entry (PDF): typical offers, deferral, results and re-marks.
• Queen's University Belfast, Medicine admissions FAQ, 2027 entry: 15 October 2026 deadline, 12 May 2027, deferral.
• University of Birmingham, MBChB admissions statistics, 2025-26 cycle (PDF): places filled through Clearing in August 2026.