Medicine Reserve List UK: How It Works

Medicine Reserve List UK: How It Works

A UK medicine reserve list is not an offer. It is a ranked list of interviewees a school may call after A-level results in August, if places open up. Queen's Belfast took 32 to 64 people a year from its list in 2021 to 2026. Lancaster took 9 to 36 home applicants.

The rule to know first: at Queen's Belfast, holding a medicine offer anywhere else takes you off the list. Sheffield will not approach you while you hold a firm or insurance place elsewhere. Both schools tell you, in writing, to keep the offer you hold. So a reserve list is a plan for the reader with no medicine offer, not a reason to turn one down. If you do hold offers, the UK medicine offers guide covers how to choose your firm and insurance.

Every school and UCAS page quoted below was checked on 7 November 2026. Of the eight schools whose pages we read, five describe a reserve list or a summer pool; they are in the table, and the other three are named below it.

What a reserve list is, in the schools' own words

Sheffield's policy explains why lists exist. Medicine places are capped by government intake targets, so schools make offers carefully:

"We recognise that there is a group of applicants to whom we would have made offers if we had unlimited places. For this reason, we operate reserve lists for our Medicine and Graduate Entry Medicine programmes."

That is the Sheffield MBChB Admissions Reserve List Policy, approved 7 September 2022, with a next review date of 7 September 2024 printed on it. It is blunt about status: "Applicants on the reserve list have been unsuccessful in their application." UCAS shows the medicine choice as unsuccessful; the reserve list is Sheffield's own, and Sheffield emails you about it directly.

Queen's Belfast sets the same cap in its medicine admissions FAQ: 236 home places for 2027 entry, "fixed by the Department of Health and clinical placements."

Reserve-list rules at five UK schools

Glasgow's full sentence is: "A number of applicants who narrowly miss an offer may be contacted to advise that, should places become available, they will be reviewed provided they wish to be reconsidered." Cambridge's Summer Pool considers "an offer holder who has narrowly missed the conditions of your original offer" and applicants who apply for reconsideration.

We also read Edinburgh's medicine unsuccessful-applicants page, Newcastle's 2027 admissions policy and King's College London's medicine course page. None describes a reserve list. Newcastle says only that "Applicants eligible for Clearing may be considered by the Medical School should vacancies arise late in the admissions cycle."

How many places reserve lists fill

Two schools publish the count. Queen's Belfast, home applicants:

Lancaster's A100 figures, by year of entry, 2022 to 2026: 9, 36, 9, 20 and 14 UK applicants "Placed from reserve list", against 125 to 132 students enrolled each year. For international A100 applicants the figure is 0 in every one of those five years.

Two readings follow. At Queen's Belfast in 2026, the list reached rank 677 when May offers had stopped near rank 496 (our arithmetic: 181 places further down the ranking). A low position is not hopeless. And the number moves a lot year to year, so last year's count tells you little about this year's.

If you are an international applicant, plan as if the list will not reach you. Lancaster's five years of zeros are the only published international data we found.

Should you decline an offer to wait for a reserve list?

No. Our view: if you hold any medicine offer, firm it or insure it, and treat the reserve list as a bonus you may never hear from.

The basis is the schools' own rules. Queen's Belfast: "if you hold an offer with another Medical School you cannot be reconsidered from the Reserve List. This includes applicants who held a CF/CI offer for Medicine at another University." Its FAQ then answers the exact question:

"We would strongly advise you to consider accepting the offer you already hold. You may end up with no medical place at all if you turn down an offer your [sic] hold."

Sheffield says the same: applicants on its list "should not allow their place on the reserve list to affect their decision on whether to accept or decline that offer." And Queen's Belfast closes the August route too: "If you accept an offer with another medical school and decline that offer in August/September you will not be eligible to be reconsidered for a place".

UCAS adds the trap that catches people in August. If you decline your firm place, you lose your insurance as well: "Yes, by declining your firm place, you'll enter Clearing" (UCAS, declining your firm place).

The countercase: if you hold no medicine offer at all, the reserve list is your main route this cycle, and it is worth working for. Meet your grades, keep your UCAS email and phone current, and be reachable in August. A reader holding a non-medicine offer they would not take should check Sheffield's rule closely: its policy says a university "must not approach an applicant who is holding a firm or an insurance place at another institution", and that "includes applicants who may be holding an offer for a course other than medicine."

What you can and cannot do while on a reserve list

What the schools tell you to do:

• Nothing, if you want to stay on it. Sheffield: "Applicants need take no action on being notified that they have been placed on the reserve list if they wish to remain on it."
• Email to come off it. Sheffield asks for an email to medadmissions@sheffield.ac.uk with your UCAS ID number.
• Phone on results day. Sheffield advises reserve-list applicants who have met its minimum academic requirements to "contact the Medical School to find out whether there are any places available", and lists three phone numbers.
• Stay on several lists. "Applicants may be on more than one reserve list and have no obligation to inform medical schools of this."

What does not help:

• Asking your position. Sheffield: "Applicants will not be notified of their position on the reserve list."
• Asking to be added. "A student cannot request to be placed onto the reserve list."
• Sending letters. No school in our table invites letters of interest. Sheffield ranks its list by interview performance, and Queen's Belfast ranks all candidates after interview. The post-interview letters guide for UK and Canadian schools covers what UK schools say about contact after interview.

Plan for both outcomes now

The reserve list decides nothing before August. Your offers do. Work through these in order:

1. Read every email your schools send. Sheffield may email you about its list before UCAS shows the decision.
2. Reply to the offers you hold by your UCAS reply date. Pick a firm and an insurance you would be glad to attend.
3. Write down each list you are on and what the school says to do on results day. Put the phone numbers in your phone.
4. Prepare plan B in parallel. If you hold no offers, read the guide to Extra and Clearing for medicine applicants. If you may reapply, check each school's reapplication rules before you book a gap year.
5. Ask for feedback once the cycle closes. Newcastle gives feedback on request but "cannot be provided until the end of the admissions cycle." The interview feedback request email shows how to ask.

Questions about medicine reserve lists

Does a reserve list mean I have an offer?

No. Sheffield's policy says applicants on its list "have been unsuccessful in their application", and UCAS shows the choice as unsuccessful.

When do medicine reserve lists move?

After A-level results. Sheffield makes no reserve-list decisions before results day. Queen's Belfast fills places "in August/September".

Can I find out my position on the list?

Not at Sheffield, which does not disclose positions. Queen's Belfast publishes the lowest rank admitted each past year, but not your own rank.

Can I stay on a reserve list if I firm another medical school?

At Queen's Belfast, no. At Sheffield, the school will not approach you, but its policy says you may phone on results day and ask to be considered.

Do international applicants get places from reserve lists?

Lancaster placed 0 international applicants from its list in each year from 2022 to 2026. No other school we read publishes the figure.

Review the writing you send next

If August brings no place, your next document is a second UCAS medicine personal statement, read by schools that may have ranked you just below the line. Get a free Quick Review of your UCAS medicine personal statement against GradPilot's UCAS medicine rubric. It checks that each of your three answers does its own job and that the set makes one case for medicine without repeating evidence.

More UK medicine guides:

• Reapplicant medicine personal statement: what to change the second time.
• UCAS medicine personal statement 2027: the three questions and the character limit.
• Medical school essays hub: every medical application guide.

Sources

Retrieved 7 November 2026, except where noted.

• University of Sheffield, MBChB Admissions Reserve List Policy (approved 7 September 2022): why lists exist, notification, removal, actions, results-day contact.
• Queen's University Belfast, Medicine admissions FAQ, 2027 entry: places, reserve-list counts 2021 to 2026, other-offer rule.
• Lancaster University, Medicine and Surgery admissions data (2022 to 2026 entry): placed from reserve list, enrolments.
• University of Glasgow, Medicine MBChB: applicants who narrowly miss an offer.
• University of Cambridge, Application decisions: Summer Pool.
• University of Edinburgh, Unsuccessful applicants: medicine: no reserve list described.
• Newcastle University, MBBS Admissions Policy 2027 Entry (PDF): Clearing vacancies, feedback timing.
• King's College London, Medicine MBBS: no reserve list described.
• UCAS, Declining your firm place: losing the insurance place.