Widening Access to Medicine

ICSM

This page is aimed at facilitating your access to the Medicine degree at Imperial College School of Medicine

Imperial College London offers contextual schemes for UCAS applicants who fall under a Home fee status or an appropriate UCAS residential category. When you apply to Imperial College School of Medicine, your application will automatically be assessed against the contextual factors described on our Contextual Admissions page. This is in order to identify whether you are eligible for our contextual admissions schemes.

If you think you qualify for one of these schemes, but you are not sure if you have been considered, please get in touch with the School of Medicine Admissions team at feo-admissions-interviews@imperial.ac.uk and we will be able to help you.

You will need to provide information by 31st October 2024 in order to be considered for contextual admissions for 2025 entry.

Caring Responsibilities

Applicants who have caring responsibilities for close relatives can also be considered under the contextual scheme by the School of Medicine. In order to be considered, you will need to provide us with evidence of your caring responsibilities, such as:

  • a letter from your school on headed paper detailing the caring responsibilities, or;
  • a letter from a social worker detailing the caring responsibilities, or;
  • a letter from your GP detailing the caring responsibilities.

All evidence should be provided on letter-headed correspondence. On occasions, we may reach out to your School to confirm the evidence.

Why do we apply contextual adjustments?

When a candidate is considered a contextual applicant, provisions are put in place in order to remove any barrier to accessing the Medicine degree. Some of the provisions we put in place for contextual applicants are as follows:

  • They receive a contextual offer if they are successful in their application process;
  • Contextual applicants receive an uplift on their UCAT score which is calculated every year depending on the threshold and the national averages of results for the exam. For more details about UCAT, please visit our UCAT resources page;
  • Contextual applicants can be given an uplift in their interview score, depending on the calculations on their year of entry;
  • Contextual applicants are welcome to ask for additional provisions that could facilitate their access (i.e. we are happy to liaise with your school so they can help you access our asynchronous MMI process).

Resources and Support

There are a number of organisations that offer additional help and mentoring for students who are underrepresented at university. Please note that we are not affiliated with any of these organisations, and that they have their own assessment criteria. We have provided the link to some of these organisations in the banner below so you can get in touch directly.

Remember to contact the Admissions Team at feo-admissions-interviews@imperial.ac.uk by 31st October 2024 to be considered for contextual adjustments.