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Gap year

A gap year is a year out between school and university. UK medical schools, such as Manchester, consider applicants who take one.

Updated 19 October 2026 (1 minute read)

Summary

One route is to apply now for a deferred start, covered on the Deferred entry page.
The other is to apply after results, during the gap year. Manchester says gap year applicants are considered in the same way as applicants applying straight from sixth form.
UCAS says that usually you can only defer your entry by one year.
Each university decides whether to accept a deferral, so UCAS advises that you contact the university before applying.

Sources

UCASucas.com/…/deferred-entry
University of Manchesterbmh.manchester.ac.uk/…/faqs

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Deferred entry Deferred entry means carrying a university offer over to start the course a year later. UCAS UCAS, the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service, runs applications to UK universities, including medical schools. UCAS Clearing Clearing is the UCAS service that applicants without an offer use to look for another course. A100 and medicine course codes A UCAS course code identifies one course at one university. A100 is the code for the standard medicine degree at many UK medical schools, and other codes, such as A101 and A108, mark graduate, gateway or other variant courses.

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Gap year

Summary

Sources

Not sure where to apply?

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