Medicine degree applicants and acceptances by free school meals status: 2019 to 2025
Published 17 April 2026
© Crown copyright 2026
This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3 or write to the Information Policy Team, The National Archives, Kew, London TW9 4DU, or email: psi@nationalarchives.gov.uk.
Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned.
This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/medicine-degree-applicants-and-acceptances-by-free-school-meals-status-2019-to-2025/medicine-degree-applicants-and-acceptances-by-free-school-meals-status-2019-to-2025
Background
This publication shows the number of 18 year old applicants and accepted applicants who live in England to medicine courses at UK universities by their free school meals (FSM) status, as recorded in the Department for Education’s National Pupil Database (NPD) since 2019.
On average over 2019 to 2025, 18 year olds made up:
- 58% of applicants from England to medicine courses
- 61% of accepted applicants from England to medicine courses
The data presented supports the government’s commitment to improve access to medicine by creating a more diverse pipeline of home-grown talent.
Data
The following tables show 18 year old applicants and accepted applicants who live in England to medicine courses at UK universities by FSM status.
Note: the definitions of the FSM status categories are in the ‘Data variable’ section below.
Table 1: 18 year old applicants to medicine courses by FSM status
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving FSM | 515 | 465 | 655 | 760 | 855 | 930 | 930 |
| Not receiving FSM | 6,285 | 6,845 | 7,810 | 7,965 | 7,595 | 7,015 | 6,610 |
| Unknown | 1,660 | 1,695 | 1,935 | 1,865 | 1,750 | 1,575 | 1,475 |
| Unlinked | 525 | 505 | 780 | 955 | 895 | 815 | 790 |
| All | 8,990 | 9,510 | 11,185 | 11,540 | 11,095 | 10,335 | 9,805 |
| % receiving FSM of all | 6% | 5% | 6% | 7% | 8% | 9% | 9% |
| % unknown or unlinked | 24% | 23% | 24% | 24% | 24% | 23% | 23% |
Table 2: 18 year old accepted applicants to medicine courses by FSM status
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving FSM | 170 | 180 | 200 | 195 | 235 | 310 | 330 |
| Not receiving FSM | 3,055 | 3,520 | 3,510 | 2,685 | 2,870 | 3,250 | 3,430 |
| Unknown | 1,025 | 1,140 | 1,080 | 945 | 930 | 990 | 970 |
| Unlinked | 125 | 130 | 120 | 130 | 230 | 275 | 255 |
| All | 4,370 | 4,970 | 4,910 | 3,950 | 4,265 | 4,825 | 4,990 |
| % receiving FSM of all | 4% | 4% | 4% | 5% | 6% | 6% | 7% |
| % unknown or unlinked | 26% | 26% | 24% | 27% | 27% | 26% | 25% |
Table 3: acceptance rate of 18 year old applicants to medicine courses by FSM status
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Receiving FSM | 33% | 39% | 30% | 26% | 27% | 33% | 36% |
| Not receiving FSM | 49% | 51% | 45% | 34% | 38% | 46% | 52% |
| Unknown | 62% | 67% | 56% | 51% | 53% | 63% | 66% |
| Unlinked | 23% | 26% | 15% | 13% | 26% | 34% | 33% |
| All | 49% | 52% | 44% | 34% | 38% | 47% | 51% |
| Gap between students receiving FSM and those not receiving FSM (pp means percentage points) | 16pp | 13pp | 15pp | 8pp | 11pp | 13pp | 16pp |
Data source
The figures presented in this data were provided to the Department of Health and Social Care by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS). The figures include UCAS data on applicants and acceptances to medicine matched with FSM data from the NPD.
UCAS publishes the number of applicants to medicine courses each year after their October deadline for medicine applications. Medicine applicants are identified here as those applying to a list of courses that are listed as a medicine course with an October deadline by the higher education (HE) provider, and which have a recognised outcome qualification, for example ‘Bachelor of medicine’.
See the latest release: 2026 cycle applicant figures - 15 October deadline.
UCAS also publishes the number of accepted applicants to medicine courses after each application cycle for an academic year closes. Courses categorised as ‘medicine’ in UCAS’s end of application cycle data are defined using the Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA) Common Aggregation Hierarchy (CAH) course mapping.
See the latest release: UCAS undergraduate end of cycle data resources 2025.
Data coverage
This data covers 18 year old applicants living in England who applied to at least one medicine course at a UK university (2019 to 2025 application cycles).
The statistics cover:
- medicine applicants - the number of people who made an application to a medicine course in the UCAS system during the application cycle reported (including applications for deferred entry). Medicine applicants are identified using the list of medicine courses used to report on medicine applicants at the October deadline - in other words, courses listed as a medicine course with an October deadline by the HE provider, and which have a recognised outcome qualification (for example, ‘Bachelor of medicine’)
- accepted medicine applicants - the number of applicants who, at the end of the application cycle, have been placed for entry onto a medicine course
- medicine acceptance rate - the number of acceptances to medicine divided by the number of applicants to medicine. Acceptance rate is only calculated for a group of applicants when the number of applicants in the group is greater than or equal to 10
Data rounding and matching
Data values are rounded to the nearest 5.
Data variables
Cycle year
The academic year in which the applicant or accepted applicant is to begin their studies.
NPD FSM status (KS4_FSM)
Whether a student was receiving free school meals at age 15.
FSM status
The FSM eligibility status of the applicant is derived from the KS4_FSM field in the NPD. In this field, students are categorised as ‘receiving FSM’ if they were receiving free school meals at age 15. The proportion of pupils eligible for (and claiming) free school meals can change over time depending on economic factors affecting employment and earning and any changes to eligibility criteria.
The proportion of pupils eligible for (and claiming) free school meals can change over time depending on economic factors affecting employment and earning and any changes to eligibility criteria.
FSM status categories
The FSM status categories are:
- receiving FSM - students who received free school meals
- not receiving FSM - students who did not receive free school meals
- unknown - students whose UCAS application has been successfully linked to an NPD record but whose FSM status is unknown. These are largely students from fee paying schools. It is likely that the large majority of these are not in receipt of free school meals
- unlinked - students whose UCAS application could not be linked to an NPD record and so whose FSM status is unknown. Completely withdrawn applicants are also assigned an NPD FSM status value of ‘Unlinked’ due to the nature of the NPD linking process carried out by UCAS
- all - all student categories
Limitations
This data includes 18 year olds only. It does not include all age groups. UCAS analytical data sets are designed to allow reporting of NPD-linked 18 year olds, who have the best match rates.
An assessment is being made of the feasibility of also including 19 year olds. Including 19 year olds would provide a more comprehensive picture of applicants and accepted applicants to medicine who received free school meals by additionally capturing students who may be applying to university during a gap year after completing further education.