University of Buckingham

Four and a half years, and what that does to the total

No other program in this catalog — medicine, dentistry or pharmacy, in any country — runs 4.5 years. Among the 35 UK medicine records with a published fee, four run four years, twenty-four run five, six run six, and this one is on its own.

The consequence is a ranking that reverses. On annual fee Buckingham is the thirteenth cheapest of those 35; on total tuition across the degree it is the tenth. City St George's does the opposite, moving from ninth cheapest annually to thirteenth on total. Buckingham charges £47,000 a year against City St George's £46,000 — about €54,346 against €53,190 — and still comes out roughly €21,391 cheaper over the course, because it bills 4.5 years instead of 5.

Total tuition works out at about €244,557. Add Buckingham's living costs of roughly €11,900 a year on this site's presets and the all-in figure is about €298,100 — against €344,400 at City St George's, where London living costs €15,700 a year.

The fee is also moving. The confirmed rate is £47,000 per year for the January 2027 intake, and our record notes the current international rate is £45,000 — a rise of about €2,313 a year. Budget from the January 2027 figure, not the one a current student is paying.

A January start, and its own front door

The intake is January, which is unusual across this entire catalog and almost unheard of in UK medicine, where the calendar runs to a mid-October UCAS deadline for a September start.

Selection is different too. Our record states that UCAT is not the sole national screening route here and that applicants must complete Buckingham's own process — university selection testing and assessment, plus a multiple mini interview. The academic requirement is ABB including biology and chemistry, or accepted equivalents, where Exeter asks A*AA and most of the UK asks AAA.

Read those together and Buckingham is a genuinely different route into UK medicine rather than a cheaper version of the same one: a lower published grade threshold, an institution-run selection process, and a start date that does not collide with the rest of the sector's cycle. For an applicant who missed the October UCAS deadline, it is the one UK option on this site whose calendar may still work.

Health, police or DBS and fitness-to-practise checks apply, as they do everywhere in UK medicine.

What the shorter degree does not change

English is the clinical language, which is the structural advantage every UK program holds over the non-English-speaking countries in this catalog — no local language to acquire for patient contact alongside the degree.

The award is an MB ChB from the Medical School. A compressed 4.5-year course means the same content in less calendar time rather than less content, so the saving in tuition and living costs is bought with intensity, and that is worth asking the admissions office about directly before treating the shorter degree as straightforwardly easier.