Queen's University Belfast Dentistry Entry Requirements 2027

Queen's University Belfast Dentistry (BDS, UCAS code A200) is a five-year degree that asks for AAA at A-level, including Chemistry and Biology, for 2027 entry. Its 45 places for UK and Republic of Ireland applicants are shortlisted on a 45-point score made of 36 academic points and 9 UCAT points, and the interview threshold for 2026 entry was 38 of 45. Its 15 international places are filled without the UCAT or a points score.

The figures below come from Queen's own documents: its Admission Policy Statement for Dentistry for 2027 entry, the A200 course page for the 2027/28 entry year and the Pathway Opportunity Programme pages, with UCAT's national 2026 test statistics for the UCAT conversion. Where a rule changed between the 2026-entry and 2027-entry statements, both versions are given and labelled. The Centre for Dentistry, which has delivered dental undergraduate education in Northern Ireland since 1920, describes itself as “the only Dental School in Northern Ireland”. For how the other UK schools compare, our guide to dentistry admissions in the UK covers the national picture, and the UK dental schools directory takes each school in turn.

Which pool are you in? Fee status decides the process at Queen's

The course page lists 45 places for applicants from the UK and the Republic of Ireland, who are “ranked on academic ability and performance in UCAT”, and 15 places for international and European Union (not ROI) students, who are “ranked solely on academic ability”. The line between the two is drawn by tuition fee status. The UCAT requirement applies to applicants “assigned as Northern Ireland (NI), Great Britain (GB) or European Union - Republic of Ireland (EU (ROI)) for fees purposes”, and the interview arrangements and the points score follow the same division.

Because places are counted per fee category, the category still matters after an offer. The 2027-entry statement warns that if an applicant's fee status changes after an offer is made, “this may lead to the applicant’s offer having to be withdrawn due to the fixed number of places in each tuition fee category”. Home fee status needs two things before the first day of the course. One is being settled in the UK: having the Right of Abode or Indefinite Leave to Enter or Remain, or being a British or Irish citizen, and Queen's adds that EU, EEA and Swiss nationals with settled or pre-settled status under the EU Settlement Scheme may also qualify depending on their circumstances. The other is three years' ordinary residence in the UK, EEA, Switzerland or Gibraltar before the course starts, “for purposes other than receiving full time education”.

Two fee rules apply to Irish nationals in particular. ROI nationals resident in the Republic “are eligible for NI tuition fees”, while “Students who are ROI nationals resident in GB will be charged the GB fee.” EU Other students, a group that excludes Republic of Ireland nationals living in GB, NI or ROI, “are charged tuition fees in line with international fees”. Queen's labels the NI, ROI and GB figures as “the 2026-27 fees” that “will be updated when the new fees are known”. The £52,509 figure for EU Other and international students appeared on the 2027/28 course page without a year attached when read in October 2026.

How is the 45-point pre-interview score built?

For most home applicants the interview invitation turns on one number. At Stage 1, Queen's scores home applicants and ranks them “on the basis of their combined academic and UCAT score”, invites a proportion to interview, and makes the final decision on an offer “based solely on interview performance”. Queen's calls this total the pre-interview score. The academic part is worth up to 36 points and the UCAT part up to 9, a maximum of 45 that was introduced for 2026 entry. From 2017 to 2025 the UCAT was worth six points and the total was 42, and the 2026-entry statement set the new total “for 2026 entry (and not 42 points as previously recorded)”.

School leavers completing A-levels for the first time in 2027 are scored on GCSEs, using the table below. The best nine subjects count, at the first attempt unless a GCSE was taken a year early and then repeated at the normal stage. Only GCSEs taken in Years 11 and 12 count (Years 10 and 11 in England and Wales), and at most one BTEC or OCR Level 2 qualification can stand in for one or two GCSEs.

Other qualification routes reach the same 36-point ceiling by different paths. Applicants who already hold the required A-level grades, qualifying resit candidates and qualifying degree holders are each awarded 36 points outright.

Where applicants tie, “Additional grade As at GCSE may also be used to distinguish between applicants on the same points score”, and the course page adds that AS-level performance and additional GCSE A grades “may also be taken into account in borderline cases”. An applicant who has never sat GCSEs or equivalent qualifications is given an academic score “on the basis of school reports”.

The offer is a separate test, met after the interview. For 2027 entry it is AAA at A-level including Chemistry and Biology or Human Biology, with GCSE Mathematics and English at grade C/4 if they are not offered at AS or A-level. The course page adds that all applicants need GCSE English Language at C/4 or an accepted equivalent. Only one Applied A-level and one Mathematics subject are counted, and A-level Critical Thinking and General Studies are not acceptable. A-levels count only if taken in Years 13 and 14 (Years 12 and 13 in England and Wales), and all three must normally be completed within two years of finishing GCSEs. The International Baccalaureate offer is 36 points with 6,6,6 at Higher Level, including Biology and Chemistry. Our guide to GCSE requirements across UK dental schools shows how other schools treat the same transcript.

What have the interview thresholds been since 2017?

Queen's publishes the score that cleared the bar for interview each year, and the 2027-entry statement extends the series to 2026, the first year on the 45-point scale. The statement prints each threshold with its maximum, which matters because the maximum changed.

Two breaks in the series stop the figures being read as a single trend. Queen's notes that “from 2022 grades B and C were scored for the first time and the threshold is not therefore directly comparable with previous years”. The scale then grew from 42 to 45 when the UCAT share rose from six points to nine. Queen's also says the threshold “varies from year to year depending on competition for places and cannot be predicted in advance”, so the 2026 figure is a record of one cycle, not a target for the next.

The arithmetic still says something useful. At 38 of 45, the most an applicant could fall short of the maximum and still be invited was 7 points (45 minus 38), against 6 points in 2025 (42 minus 36) and 4 points in 2024 (42 minus 38). And because the UCAT adds at most 9 points, an applicant needed at least 29 academic points (38 minus 9) to reach the 2026 threshold at all. Below that, even the top UCAT band could not close the gap.

What is a 2026 UCAT total worth in Queen's points for 2027 entry?

Queen's converts the UCAT by rank, not by score. For 2027 entry, home applicants' UCAT is “scored using the overall results”, a score that “includes the score on the three sections (verbal reasoning, decision making and quantitative reasoning)”. Applicants “can obtain a maximum of nine additional points based on the decile rank they achieve based on the results published by UCAT for the 2027 application cycle”. The UCAT sat in 2026 is that cycle's test: UCAT says its 2026 results “are only valid for the 2027 UCAS Admissions cycle”, and it delivers them to universities in early November.

UCAT's national statistics for the 2026 test, based on 42,359 tests taken up to 24 September 2026, put the mean total at 1918. Each of the three sections is scaled from 300 to 900, so totals run from 900 to 2700. UCAT publishes its deciles as cut points: “The 1st decile represents a score at the 10th percentile; the 2nd decile represents a score at the 20th percentile, and so on.” The table sets Queen's bands, in Queen's own wording, beside the total that UCAT's national 2026 figures place at the top of each band.

Read the right-hand column with care. Those totals are UCAT's national statistics, not thresholds Queen's publishes, and Queen's applies its bands to the centile rank that UCAT records for each candidate. On the national figures, a total above 2250 placed a candidate above the 90th percentile, the band Queen's rewards with all 9 points.

A worked example shows how the two parts combine. An applicant scored on GCSEs with six grade 9s and three grade 7s has 6 × 4 + 3 × 3 = 33 academic points. Reaching 38, the 2026-entry threshold, would take 5 more points from the UCAT. Queen's awards 5 points for a rank “>50th centile to ≤60th centile”, so 5 points or more needs a rank above the 50th centile, and UCAT's national 2026 statistics put the 50th percentile at a total of 1920. Whether the 2027 threshold will also be 38 is, on Queen's own account, something that cannot be predicted.

This method replaced a table of raw scores. For 2025 entry, when Queen's scored “the overall results from four papers”, it banded the total itself: 1200–1899 earned 0 points, 1900–2099 earned 1, 2100–2299 earned 2, 2300–2499 earned 3, 2500–2699 earned 4, 2700–2899 earned 5 and 2900–3600 earned 6. UCAT removed Abstract Reasoning in 2025 and says that “scores from 2025 are not directly comparable with those from before 2025”, so older totals and the old points table cannot be read across to the 2026 test.

The Situational Judgement Test is not one of the three sections in the scored total. Queen's says it “can be used at two points to inform decisions”: on borderline applicants with a similar combined academic and UCAT score, and on borderline applicants with a similar score at interview. The UCAT itself is compulsory for all Home Fee applicants, and Queen's “will only grant exemptions in very exceptional circumstances and where appropriate supporting evidence is provided”. If a total comes in lower than planned, our guide to dentistry options with a low UCAT score sets out the choices, and our UCAT tutors work with applicants sitting the UCAT in 2027 for 2028 entry on all three scored sections.

Gap year, resit or degree: who starts on 36 points?

Applicants who already hold their grades are scored differently, and the difference is large. Under the 2027-entry statement, an applicant who has completed A-levels in the right subjects and achieved the normal target grades at the first attempt is awarded 36 points, the full academic score, so UCAT points decide where such applicants rank at Stage 1, subject only to tie-breaks. If all subjects and grades have been achieved and no alternative degree has been started, the offer is unconditional. The conditions are strict. Someone applying for dentistry a second time “will only be considered if they included Queen’s as one of their Dental choices first time round”, while someone applying to dentistry for the first time “because of a change in career plans” is also considered, with the UCAT still required.

Resit candidates are restricted. Queen's considers only those who applied to its dentistry course at the first attempt and held its offer, if one was made, as their Conditional Firm choice. The 2027-entry statement adds “(if you were not made an offer this stipulation will not apply)”; the 2026-entry statement ended the same sentence at “are considered”. Resit candidates must have achieved AAB at the first attempt, or at most one A-level grade below the previous year's accepted standard if that is lower. The resit offer is AAA with both Biology and Chemistry, only two attempts at A-levels are permitted, and the UCAT must be retaken “as it is only valid for one application cycle”. Qualifying resit candidates are allocated 36 points before their UCAT points are added.

Degree holders apply to the same five-year A200 course. They need at least an Upper Second Class Honours degree, or the potential to achieve one, plus an average of BBB at A-level at the first attempt, or B2 B2 B2 B2 B2 B2 or H3 H3 H3 H3 H3 H3 in the Leaving Certificate, or BBBBB in Scottish Highers. With a First Class degree, or a PhD on top of an Upper Second, BBC is acceptable, and the course page lists ABC alongside BBB. The 2027-entry statement says “No specific degree subject required.” Chemistry and Biology are required, though, and the lowest grade considered in either is a C at A-level or B2/H3 at Higher Level in the Leaving Certificate. “A 2.2 Honours degree will not be considered including those who have completed a postgraduate qualification”, and only two attempts are permitted as a degree-holding applicant. Applicants who meet the criteria receive 36 points, then UCAT points.

For all three groups, the 2026-entry threshold shows how much the UCAT carries. Against a threshold of 38, a 36-point applicant would need 2 UCAT points, which Queen's awards for a rank “>20th centile to ≤30th centile”. For the 2027 cycle, UCAT's national 2026 statistics put the 20th percentile at a total of 1700. Two further rules apply. Applicants who have started another degree course are required to complete the year and pass all examinations at the first attempt with a weighted average mark of 60% by July of the application cycle, criteria Queen's says are “under review for the 2028 application cycle”. And Queen's allows “a maximum of four attempts”, meaning applications in four different UCAS cycles, including applications to other dental schools, with no more than two at A-level or degree level. For mature applicants without a degree, “Access Course qualifications are not acceptable.” If you are applying for 2028 entry after A-levels or with a degree, our UCAT tutors can plan the test around the 36 points you start with: book a free consultation.

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Northern Ireland school leavers: AS-level shortlisting and the Pathway Opportunity Programme

Queen's 2027-entry statement says the Centre for Dentistry “has two programmes in place to widen participation in dentistry for candidates from Northern Ireland”. The first changes how applicants are scored. Under a heading for those who completed their GCSEs at a secondary school with a Northern Ireland BT postcode, applicants educated at a Northern Ireland secondary school to at least Year 12 are shortlisted on AS-level grades, rather than GCSE performance, plus UCAT results and predicted A-level performance. Queen's says this results in more students from that background progressing to the interview stage.

Queen's two main sources do not say the same thing here, so both are given. The A200 course page states that “For NI and GB applicants, GCSE performance in the best 9 subjects will be scored”. The policy statement sends applicants schooled in Northern Ireland to Year 12 down the AS-level route instead. An applicant from a Northern Ireland school should ask Queen's Admissions and Access Service which basis will be applied before relying on either.

The second programme is the University's Pathway Opportunity Programme. Students accepted onto its School of Medicine, Dentistry and Biomedical Sciences pathway follow a structured series of events through Years 13 and 14, including a one-week residential summer school, and complete assessed work. In the statement's words, those who are successful “will receive a guaranteed interview and a possible offer of one A Level grade below the normal target”. The programme's own page says students on the pathway applying to dentistry receive a guaranteed interview and, “if successful at interview, will be eligible for up to a one grade reduced offer”. The pathway “is only open to applicants with a BT postcode and attending a school within Northern Ireland”. Students who complete any other Pathway programme at Queen's and can meet the normal academic requirements also receive a guaranteed interview, with the normal entry requirements applying.

Eligibility has two parts. Every applicant must meet all eight Section A criteria: being ordinarily resident in Northern Ireland; being in full-time education at a school or college there; being in year 1 of an acceptable two-year Level 3 qualification such as A-levels; having neither parent who has attended university or obtained an undergraduate degree; holding at least five Level 2 or GCSE passes at grade C/4 or above, including GCSE English Language, with no more than one non-GCSE qualification among them; meeting any GCSE subject requirements for courses on the chosen pathway; studying the relevant combination of Level 3 subjects for it; and aspiring to study at Queen's specifically. Applicants must also meet at least one Section B criterion. Examples are eligibility for free school meals or Education Maintenance Allowance within the last 2 years, being a carer, or living in a postcode that the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency treats as an area of disadvantage. The programme is open to students aged 16 to 19, and for dentistry, Level 3 BTEC, OCR and other non-A-level qualifications do not meet the A-level requirement. Applications for the 2027 programme opened on Tuesday 29 September 2026 and close at noon on 4 November 2026, and its events run from January 2027 to December 2027, so it serves students in year 1 of a two-year Level 3 course such as A-levels in 2026-27, who will be applying for 2028 entry. Details are on Queen's Pathway Opportunity Programme page for students. Our UCAT and interview tutors work with Northern Ireland applicants aiming for 2028 entry on both routes, including Pathway students preparing for a guaranteed interview: book a free consultation.

Applying from the Republic of Ireland: home fees, UCAT and the Junior Certificate

Republic of Ireland nationals applying from the Republic compete for the 45 UK and ROI places, not the international ones; EU Other students, a group that excludes ROI nationals living in GB, NI or ROI, are charged international fees. Those assigned EU (ROI) fee status sit the UCAT and, as Home fee applicants, interview in Belfast. ROI nationals resident in the Republic are eligible for the Northern Ireland fee, £4,985 in 2026-27, while ROI nationals living in Great Britain pay the GB fee of £9,790.

Leaving Certificate applicants are shortlisted partly on Junior Certificate results, which Queen's asks applicants to include in their UCAS application. The best nine Junior Certificate subjects are scored, with A or Distinction worth 4 points, B or Higher Merit 3, and C or Merit 1. The maximum is therefore 9 × 4 = 36, the same academic ceiling as the GCSE route, and UCAT points are then added. Where offers are made they are conditional on H1 H1 (Biology and Chemistry) H1 H1 H2 H2 at Higher Level in the Leaving Certificate.

The Ordinary Level requirement is printed three ways. The course page asks for “Ordinary Level grade O3 in Mathematics” if Mathematics is not offered at Higher Level. Section 12 of the 2027-entry statement asks for grade 03, as printed, in English and Mathematics at Ordinary Level. The statement's own qualifications table asks for “Grades O4 in English and Mathematics at ordinary level”. Applicants offering Ordinary Level English or Mathematics should confirm the grade with Queen's Admissions and Access Service before relying on any one of them.

What does the Queen's dentistry interview assess for 2027 entry?

Stage 1 points buy an interview and nothing more. Interview scores “are used to create a rank order”, and “Offers are made to the applicants who rank highest after interview.” For 2027 entry, Queen's lists four things the interview is designed to test:

• Awareness of the demands of the course and profession
• Interpersonal Skills
• Professionalism
• Self-Management

The previous cycle's statement, for 2026 entry, listed nine attributes instead: resilience; maturity and responsibility; interpersonal and communication skills; confidence; self awareness; empathy; ethical and moral values; professionalism and integrity; and awareness of the demands of training as a dental surgeon. The A200 course page describes what Queen's values at interview in its own words: “genuine commitment to dentistry, sustained motivation, and strong communication skills”, along with initiative, professional responsibility, teamwork, a commitment to patient care, resilience and the ability to reflect on experiences.

Where the interview happens depends on fee status. Applicants assigned Home fee status, or likely to be classified as Home applicants by 1 September in the year of entry, “will be required to attend for interview in Belfast”. International and EU Other (non-ROI) applicants “will be required to complete an online interview”. The rank order also governs August. Should places be available then, Queen's says the rank order will be the primary factor in considering candidates who have satisfied the academic criteria and are not holding an offer with any other dental school through UCAS.

Three procedural rules surround the interview. An applicant who presents for interview is “deemed fit to participate in the interview process”. Extenuating circumstances that may affect performance “must be stated when booking the interview”, and “Retrospective adjustments will not be made.” Where interview scores are close, the UCAT Situational Judgement Test can be used to separate borderline applicants.

The personal statement is read but not scored. Queen's expects candidates “to state explicitly that Dentistry is their career choice”, looks for evidence of commitment and motivation, and notes that “an applicant cannot be considered for both Medicine and Dentistry”. Work experience in a dental clinical setting “is not a requirement for admission”, though applicants are expected to show insight into the profession and enthusiasm to study the subject.

International and EU Other applicants: 15 places, no UCAT, holistic review

Applicants without Home fee status compete for 15 places through a different process. The 2027-entry statement says “International applicants are not required to complete UCAT, and it is not used as part of our selection criteria”, and that applications “will be considered holistically; no scoring system is used and the different factors are not weighted”. Shortlisting draws on previous academic background, predicted grades, evidence of proficiency in English, the academic reference and the personal statement. The course page words it differently, describing this group as “ranked solely on academic ability”, so Queen's two sources do not describe the international review in the same terms. Interviews are online, and international applicants “are not required to travel to Belfast”.

GCSE, SPM or O-Level Mathematics at grade C/4, or an equivalent, is required if Mathematics is not offered beyond that level. For English, the statement's list of commonly accepted evidence includes IELTS Academic at 7.5 overall with at least 7.0 in speaking and listening and 6.0 in reading and writing. It also includes TOEFL iBT at 105, with at least 24 in listening, 21 in reading, 23 in speaking and 23 in writing. Both tests must be taken within two years of the course start date. The course page lists the EU Other and international fee at £52,509, and international students provide a Certificate of Good Conduct or equivalent “in lieu of an Access NI check”.

After the 2027-entry deadline: what happens next, and what can still stop an offer

The UCAS deadline for 2027 entry to A200 was 6.00 pm on 15 October 2026, and Queen's states that applications received after that date will not be considered. For applications made in time, the next steps follow the 2027-entry statement. UCAT delivers results to universities in early November. Stage 1 scores then rank home applicants, while international applicants are reviewed holistically. A proportion of each group is interviewed, in Belfast or online, and offers follow the interview rank order.

An offer carries conditions that have nothing to do with grades. Any offer is “conditional on a satisfactory criminal history check (Access NI Enhanced Disclosure Check)”. The course page gives £32 as the current cost of that check, payable at the start of the course, and warns that “relevant procedures and/or costs may change”. For international students, a Certificate of Good Conduct or equivalent is required in lieu of the AccessNI check. Applicants must show they have been screened and are non-infectious for HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C. All dental students must also undergo additional health clearance, because the course “entails extensive clinical practice involving EPPs”, the exposure-prone procedures in which a patient's open tissues could be exposed to a clinician's blood.

Queen's also applies a statutory age rule. Its statement quotes the Dentists Act 1984, section 6(2): a dental authority “shall not grant a degree or licence in dentistry to a person who has not attained the age of 21 years.” The statement's introduction draws the consequence itself: “it is not possible to admit students on to the five-year programme under the age of 16”.

Two further rules end some applications before they start. Applicants who have previously begun a dental degree at any university and withdrawn, failed exams or been asked to leave “will not normally be considered”. Queen's also states that “Dental Schools do not accept transfers of students from other schools”, adding, under home transfers, that transfers may be considered in unforeseen exceptional circumstances with the approval of both the sending and receiving programmes, and that in most cases the student would need to restart from year one; students from a dental school outside the UK “are unable to transfer into a programme in a UK dental school”. For applicants aiming at 2028 entry, the 2027-entry rules are the nearest current guide. The UCAT “must be taken during the summer prior to completion of the UCAS application”, and the rules on starting an alternative degree are under review for the 2028 cycle. Applicants planning for 2028 entry can book a free consultation to set out UCAT and interview preparation against those rules.

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