What English Score Do You Actually Need?
33 programs publish a number. Most sit at IELTS 6.5 or 7.0, three want 7.5 — and more than half of the published bars belong to pharmacy.
Quick Answer
If a number is published at all, it is usually 6.5 or 7.0. Of the 212 programs on this site that publish exact admission requirements, 33 name a specific IELTS or TOEFL threshold — and the distribution is tight: 11 at IELTS 6.5, 11 at 7.0, 6 at 6.0 and 3 at 7.5. The 7.5 group is the ceiling and it is small: Queen's University Belfast dentistry, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and the University of East Anglia. The floor of IELTS 6.0 appears at Palacký University Olomouc, the University of Zagreb, Bangor and the Medical University of Warsaw's pharmacy course. On TOEFL iBT the published range runs from 79 at three Greek programs up to 90 at Warsaw. Two things about that set surprise people. Twenty-two of the 33 are British, so this is largely a UK question. And 18 of the 33 are pharmacy against 10 medicine and 5 dentistry, which makes pharmacy by far the most likely of the three subjects to hand you an explicit number. Whether you need a test at all is a separate question, answered in our English requirements guide.
Source Status
Thresholds are taken from the exact admission requirements recorded per program in our catalog, which stores each university's published wording. Only programs stating a numeric IELTS or TOEFL score are counted; programs that assess English by interview, by prior schooling in English, or without publishing a number are excluded.
Quick Take
- 33 programs publish a number; 22 of them are British.
- IELTS 6.5 and 7.0 account for 22 of the 33.
- Pharmacy publishes a threshold more often than medicine or dentistry.
The distribution
| Published IELTS overall | Programs |
|---|---|
| 7.5 | 3 |
| 7.0 | 11 |
| 6.5 | 11 |
| 6.0 | 6 |
Two thirds of the published bars sit at 6.5 or 7.0, which makes those the numbers worth planning around. If you are booking a test without a specific offer in hand, a 7.0 overall clears 28 of the 33 and a 7.5 clears all of them.
The 7.5 ceiling is three programs: Queen's University Belfast dentistry, which also sets component minimums, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and the University of East Anglia.
The 6.0 floor appears at Palacký University Olomouc for both medicine and dentistry, the University of Zagreb, Bangor University pharmacy and the Medical University of Warsaw pharmacy. Zagreb is notable for publishing alternatives at the same level — IELTS 6, Duolingo 105, or an accepted C1 certificate.
On TOEFL iBT, published figures run 79 at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Crete and Patras, 80 at Athens, 87 at Palacký and Jagiellonian, and 90 at the Medical University of Warsaw. Palacký also publishes PTE Academic 59 as an alternative.
The component trap
An overall score is not the whole requirement, and this is where a booked test goes to waste.
Cardiff University's pharmacy course asks for IELTS 7.0 overall with at least 6.5 in each component. A 7.0 average built on a 6.0 in writing does not meet it.
Queen's University Belfast dentistry goes further and asymmetrically: IELTS 7.5 overall, with a minimum of 7.0 in speaking and listening and 6.0 in the other components. That is a profile requirement, not a single number — you can miss it while exceeding the headline.
Only one further program in our data states that component floors are published as such, at Masaryk University's pharmacy course. But the two examples above are enough to establish the rule: read the sentence after the number. Where a component minimum exists it is usually the binding constraint, because most candidates' weakest band sits well below their average.
Practically, that means preparing your weakest skill rather than your average. A candidate who needs 7.0 overall with 6.5 everywhere should be working on writing, which is the band most people underperform.
Why pharmacy publishes more numbers
Eighteen of the 33 published thresholds are pharmacy, against 10 medicine and 5 dentistry. Pharmacy is roughly a quarter of the catalog and more than half of this list.
Part of that is documentation: an official-source audit on 12 August 2026 took UK pharmacy from 10 published requirement sets to 23, and English bands came with them. Seventeen of those 23 UK pharmacy programs name a numeric English requirement.
Part of it is the profession. Pharmacy is patient-facing from early in the degree and the counselling element is explicit, so a stated language bar is doing real work rather than ticking an admissions box.
The subject-level detail sits in what UK pharmacy schools actually ask for.
What the number is not
It is not the same as needing a test. Most programs on this site publish no numeric band, and many accept prior schooling in English or assess through the interview instead. Whether a test is required at all is its own guide.
It is not the language you will need on the ward. Every program here teaches in English; clinical placements put you in front of patients speaking Polish, Hungarian, Romanian or Italian. An IELTS 7.5 does nothing for that, and the requirement usually appears years later — clinical language requirements.
It is not permanent. IELTS results are typically treated as valid for two years, so sitting the test very early in a long application cycle can mean sitting it twice. Time it against the deadlines in the deadline calendar.
And it is not the only accepted evidence. Zagreb accepts Duolingo 105 or a C1 certificate at the same level as IELTS 6; Palacký accepts PTE Academic 59. Ask what alternatives are accepted before booking the most expensive option.
FAQs
What IELTS score do I need for medical school in Europe?
Where a number is published, usually 6.5 or 7.0 — those two levels account for 22 of the 33 programs on this site that state a threshold. Six programs accept 6.0 and three require 7.5. A 7.0 overall clears 28 of the 33.
Which programs require IELTS 7.5?
Three: Queen's University Belfast dentistry, the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, and the University of East Anglia. Queen's also sets component minimums of 7.0 in speaking and listening and 6.0 in the other components, so the profile matters as well as the overall score.
What TOEFL score is accepted?
Published figures on this site run from iBT 79 at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Crete and Patras, to 80 at Athens, 87 at Palacký and Jagiellonian, and 90 at the Medical University of Warsaw. Palacký also publishes PTE Academic 59 as an alternative.
Do component scores matter or just the overall?
Both, and the components are often the binding constraint. Cardiff pharmacy asks for IELTS 7.0 overall with at least 6.5 in each component, and Queen's Belfast dentistry for 7.5 overall with 7.0 in speaking and listening and 6.0 elsewhere. Prepare your weakest band rather than your average.
Why do pharmacy programs publish English scores more often?
Eighteen of the 33 published thresholds are pharmacy against 10 medicine and 5 dentistry. Partly documentation — an August 2026 audit added 13 UK pharmacy requirement sets — and partly the profession, since pharmacy is patient-facing and counselling-heavy from early in the degree.
Do I always need an English test?
No. Most programs on this site publish no numeric band, and many accept evidence of prior schooling in English or assess English through the admissions interview instead. Some accept alternatives such as Duolingo or a C1 certificate — Zagreb lists Duolingo 105 alongside IELTS 6.