Admissions deadlines for 2027 entry

Dates for students applying in autumn 2026 to start university in 2027.

Date	What closes	Source
15 September 2026	LNAT registration and booking deadline Applying to Oxford or Cambridge for law. Book earlier than this if you want a choice of test centre.	LNAT
16 September 2026, 15:00	UCAT booking and registration close Medicine and dentistry at most UK schools. Registration and booking shut together, so there is no late booking.	UCAT
24 September 2026	Last UCAT test date The testing window ran from 13 July. This is the final sitting for 2027 entry.	UCAT
28 September 2026, 18:00	ESAT and TMUA registration and booking close Cambridge sciences, engineering, economics and computer science, and a small number of other universities.	UAT-UK
12 to 16 October 2026	ESAT and TMUA October sittings Candidates in China, Hong Kong and Macau sit ESAT on 12 or 13 October and TMUA on 15 or 16 October.	UAT-UK
15 October 2026	Last LNAT sitting for Oxford and Cambridge Other law schools accept later dates. Check the one you are applying to.	LNAT
15 October 2026, 18:00	UCAS deadline for Oxford, Cambridge, medicine, dentistry and veterinary The hard one. A form submitted at 18:01 is a form submitted next year.	UCAS
Mid-November 2026	Interview invitations start arriving Cambridge sends most invitations in November and some in early December. The timing does not reflect how strong a candidate you are.	Cambridge
7 to 18 December 2026	Cambridge main interview period Keep the whole period free. Cambridge cannot reschedule an interview except in exceptional circumstances, and missing it ends the application.	Cambridge
Early to mid-December 2026	Oxford interviews Oxford has not published its exact 2026 timetable yet. Check the timetable page once it appears.	Oxford
13 January 2027, 18:00	UCAS equal consideration deadline Every other course. Applications in by this time are considered equally.	UCAS
12 January 2027	Oxford decisions Released through UCAS. Colleges follow up later the same day.	Oxford
Mid to late January 2027	Cambridge winter pool interviews A college that likes you but has no room passes you to the pool. Pooled candidates are interviewed again in January.	Cambridge
27 January 2027	Cambridge decisions The college emails in the morning and UCAS updates by mid-afternoon.	Cambridge
Mid-March to early April 2027	Cambridge mature applicant interviews The January application round for mature students.	Cambridge

Dates come from the awarding bodies themselves rather than from a summary. Oxford publishes the same UCAS date on its own admissions pages. Universities occasionally move a test date, so check the source link before you rely on one.

What the calendar means in practice

Three things happen at once in September, and they compete for the same evenings. The admissions test is booked and sat, the personal statement reaches a version worth sending, and school references are being written.

The test dates are the ones that cannot move. A personal statement can be improved until the middle of October. A UCAT booking that is not made by 16 September cannot be made at all, and a student who has not sat the test cannot apply to medicine this year.

If you are working backwards from 15 October, the useful order is: book the test first, draft the statement second, and start interview practice while the form is being finished.

Do not wait for the invitation

Cambridge says on its own interview page that everyone who is made an offer will have been interviewed. So the interview is the decision, and no route to a place avoids it.

Invitations arrive from mid-November for interviews that start on 7 December. A student who begins preparing when the email lands has about three weeks. A student who begins in September has three months, and the difference shows in how a candidate handles a question they cannot immediately answer, which is most of what the interview is testing.

The same holds for the winter pool in January. A pooled candidate is interviewed a second time, usually at short notice, by a college they have not spoken to before.