Undergraduate Admissions Policy - School of Dentistry 2025-26

Please see Course Search for the course list, typical entry requirements, and accepted qualifications.

The School of Dentistry recognises that some applicants may have studied a more flexible curriculum, where they have been able to progress through their educational development at an appropriate rate according to their ability. Where a Level 2 (for example, GCSE) or Level 3 (for example, A Level) qualification has been taken ‘early’ the academic reference should include the reasons for this so that it can be taken into consideration by the admissions team.

All Level 2 qualifications must have been achieved by the time of your application in order for your application to be considered by the School of Dentistry.

The School of Dentistry does not accept Level 2 Functional Skills English in lieu of GCSE English.

The School of Dentistry will only consider applications from those who have been in education within the past five years. Individual requests to consider applications from those who have been out of education longer than this length of time will be at the discretion of the Admissions team. 

Where academic requirements have not been met application information may be shared with the University’s Lifelong Learning Centre or International Foundation Year team for consideration for a Year 0 offer.

For Dental Surgery BChD (Graduate Entry), the School of Dentistry only accepts applications from final year University of Leeds Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy BSc students, and former students from this programme. Applications are not accepted from students studying other programmes or from other universities.

In order to gain admittance to the School of Dentistry, applicants must pass the following checks:

Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check

An Enhanced DBS certificate is required for students to undertake clinical placements as part of their studies within the School of Dentistry. For more information, see the Criminal convictions section of this policy.

Occupational health check

Due to the nature of the programmes and professions, and to meet statutory and professional requirements, all applicants who are offered a place on an undergraduate programme in the School of Dentistry  will be required to complete an occupational health pre-registration questionnaire and, where necessary, assessment. Offers made are conditional upon a satisfactory occupational health assessment and clearance.

Applicants with a health-related issue should contact the School of Dentistry as soon as possible if their health is likely to impact on their ability to engage with the admissions process or subsequent course. This allows the Occupational Health team at the University to support applicants to meet their true potential on the programme despite any pre-existing health concerns they may have. Contact details for the School of Dentistry can be found at the end of this policy.

Additional information can be found at Occupational health requirements for students and applicants to the Faculty of Medicine and Health.

Blood-borne viruses check

All dental students are required to undergo screening for blood-borne viruses (Hepatitis B and C, and HIV).

Drugs and substance use

The School of Dentistry has a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on illegal drug use. Students found to have taken illegal drugs or to be substance abusers at any point during their studies are likely to be removed from the course.

Dress code

Applicants should be aware that there is a strict dress code for staff and students when working in the clinical areas of the School of Dentistry and in our outreach clinics. Clothing and personal appearance must accord with the reasonable expectations of a member of the public for a professional person. For hygiene and infection prevention reasons, staff and students must comply with NHS Trust Regulations and must be bare below the elbows in clinics. Further details of the dress code will be provided to successful applicants when they register for study.

UCAT (University Clinical Aptitude Test)

All applicants for Dental Surgery BChD, Oral Science BSc are required to sit the UCAT in the year of application. The UCAT is a computer-based admissions test used by a consortium of UK and international universities to help select applications for medical and dental degree programmes. We strongly recommend that applicants prepare for the test. There are many materials to help test takers on the UCAT website.

Only the result from the first attempt will be accepted.   

The reference section of the application is carefully considered by the School of Dentistry. It helps the School to assess the nature of the applicant’s interest in and aptitude for the academic subject and is an important part of the selection process. If applicants are re-sitting Level 3 qualifications, details of any extenuating circumstances should be highlighted in the reference. References provided separately to an application will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and on a case-by-case basis, with acceptance being at the discretion of the Admissions team.

The School of Dentistry does not accept applications from those who are seeking advanced entry to undergraduate courses. All applications must be made to the first year.

The following full-time undergraduate applications must be made through the online Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). 

Deadlines:  

• Dental Surgery BChD, Oral Science BSc by 6pm on 15 October 2024.
• Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy BSc by 6pm on 29 January 2025.

These deadlines also apply to applications made to a relevant University of Leeds foundation course where the applicant intends to progress on to a School of Dentistry programme after completion of the foundation year. 

The School of Dentistry reserves the right to consider applications submitted after this date. Availability of courses in UCAS Extra will be detailed on UCAS at the appropriate stage in the cycle. 

Applications for the Dental Surgery BChD, Oral Science BSc (Graduate Entry) programme are by direct application to the School of Dentistry. The number of places available for Dental Surgery BChD (Graduate Entry) is subject to change each year dependent on overall student numbers and there is no guarantee that there will be any spaces at all. Historically, places have been extremely limited (maximum of two places) in years where there has been availability.

What happens if you apply for more than one course

Applicants who apply to more than one course in the School of Dentistry will only be considered for one course. Where possible, applicants who apply for multiple programmes within the School of Dentistry will be informed that they must choose one course only.

Internal transfers

The School of Dentistry will not consider applications to transfer internally from other programmes at the University of Leeds, including from the Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy BSc to Dental Surgery BChD, Oral Science BSc. Anyone wishing to study a dentistry course is required to apply directly for year one. The standard academic entry requirements must have been met as found on Course Search, and the same level of information must be provided as on a normal UCAS application. The same application deadlines apply.

The School of Dentistry does not offer courses on a part-time basis.

The General Dental Council stipulates that the lower age limit to practise clinical dentistry is 21. Therefore, the School of Dentistry is not able to admit any students below the age of 16 at the commencement of study.

Applicants to School of Dentistry programmes will be asked to declare any spent or unspent criminal convictions or other punishments at the point of application. Further information on the process can be found in the University's Applicants and students with criminal records policy.

As part of the student offer for our clinical programmes, an Enhanced DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) certificate is required for students to undertake clinical placements as part of their studies within the School of Dentistry. The certification process is undertaken on entry to the programme and repeated once every three years whilst students are still undertaking the same programme of study.

The Enhanced DBS certificate can only include background checks for time in the UK. If a student has been resident in the UK for less than three years, a criminal record check from their home country is required. This may be referred to as an International Criminality check.

The University of Leeds is obliged to refuse admission to applicants for certain courses, which are regulated by national or statutory bodies, where an Enhanced DBS certificate or International Criminality check reveals prior criminal behaviour giving rise to concern for the protection of the public. Clinical placements cannot be attended by those who fail to comply with the clearance processes.  

It should be noted that the General Dental Council also considers criminal convictions in relation to fitness to practise and the School has no control over this process. It is possible that certain criminal convictions could pose difficulties at the point of registration. See Student fitness to practise guidance on the General Dental Council website for further information.    

Disability

The University encourages and welcomes applications from disabled people and aims to be as inclusive as possible through its application process, learning and teaching. 

The School of Dentistry also works closely with Disability Services to support disabled students in navigating any barriers to learning. Disability includes Specific Learning Difficulties (such as dyslexia and dyspraxia), as well as diagnosed mental health conditions, physical and sensory impairments, and long term medical conditions.

For guidance on how disability may impact a student’s ability to study Dentistry, please refer to the Dental Student Fitness Standards (PDF) produced by the Higher Education Occupational Practitioners. Please check in particular sections 3 and 4: examples of practical procedures that all dentists must perform, and assessment of functional capacity.

The University’s Disability Services team is available if applicants or prospective applicants have queries about support and adjustments available whilst studying at the University of Leeds.

The School of Dentistry will consider one re-application from those who have previously applied to the institution. Further re-applications will be considered only at the discretion of the Admissions team. Please note that we do not accept re-applications within the same application cycle. Those who have previously been made an offer are not guaranteed to receive an offer when they reapply.

The School of Dentistry considers applications from applicants who have previously studied at the institution in line with the University of Leeds Admissions Policy.

The School of Dentistry will consider applications from those who are retaking examinations prior to entering the University. The School will only accept one resit attempt at full A-levels, unless an applicant is able to provide evidence of mitigating circumstances that may have prevented them from achieving the required grades on their second attempt. In such cases, evidence of all resit grades must be provided prior to or in the application; failure to do so may result in the application being rejected. Consideration for a further application is at the discretion of the Admissions Tutor and is only considered in exceptional circumstances and is not guaranteed.

If the resit grade is lower than the original grade, the better grade will be considered when reviewing the application. 

The School of Dentistry will consider applications for deferred entry and encourages such applicants to make use of the personal statement section of the application form to explain their reasons for requesting deferral. Applicants who wish to defer following the submission of their application are encouraged to do so as early as possible in the cycle and no later than confirmation of a place.  

The personal statement of the application form helps us to assess the nature of the applicant’s interest in the academic subject and is an important part of the selection process. It is essential that applicants take this opportunity to demonstrate their enthusiasm and aptitude for the academic subject. Further information about what we wish to hear about is available in our personal statement guidelines.

An applicant may be assessed based on the strength of their statement relative to others in their cohort, and/or based on criteria set by the academic school.   

Personal statements provided separately to an application will only be considered in exceptional circumstances and on a case-by-case basis, with acceptance being at the discretion of the Admissions team.

Following assessment of application forms, applicants for the Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy BSc and Dental Surgery BChD, Oral Science BSc who score highly enough will be required to attend a virtual interview. Shortlisted applicants will receive an invitation from the School to attend on a specific date and time.  

The interview allows us to further assess the personal qualities that have been demonstrated by successful students on our courses. 

The interview will be in the form of a set of multiple mini interviews (MMIs). Applicants should expect to be present for an entire morning or afternoon session. The format of the interviews is a number of different tasks undertaken consecutively. These tasks are carefully designed to determine each applicant’s suitability to study one of our dental courses. Performance will be assessed separately for each station and an overall score generated.

Where possible, the School of Dentistry will accommodate requests for alternative interview dates; however, an alternative cannot be guaranteed and applicants are encouraged to attend the allocated date and time if at all possible.     

Some applicants (for example, disabled applicants, applicants who are pregnant etc.) may require adjustments to their interview to provide them with full and equal access to the process. The School of Dentistry Admissions team is responsible for making reasonable adjustments where possible. Email the University’s Disability Services team via disability@leeds.ac.uk for further advice or information regarding disability related adjustments. Email the Equality and Inclusion Unit via equality@leeds.ac.uk for advice on other adjustments. 

We operate a ‘gathered field’ system when considering applications to the Dental Hygiene and Dental Therapy BSc and Dental Surgery BChD, Oral Science BSc courses. This means that the majority of applicants are notified of the outcome of their application following the application deadline. In cases where an applicant does not meet the minimum entry requirements, notification may be received before the deadline.  

Some applicants to the School of Dentistry may be requested to provide a piece of written work and/or undertake a test as part of the admissions process. Further details will be provided to the applicant as required.  

As outlined in the Contextual admissions schemes section of the main University of Leeds Admissions Policy, the School of Dentistry will consider prospective students via the Alternative Entry Scheme run by the Lifelong Learning Centre. 

Please refer to the University of Leeds Taught Admissions Policy for information on how decisions will be communicated by the University.