UCAT for Irish Students: HPAT, UCAT and UK Medicine Entry 2026–27

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Irish students applying to study medicine face a choice: which admissions test to sit, and which system to apply through. Students applying only to Irish medical schools sit the HPAT-Ireland and apply via the CAO. Students applying to UK medical schools that require the UCAT sit it and apply via UCAS. Students who want both routes open do both in the same admissions cycle — and because the two tests are built differently and run on separate timetables, treating "UCAT for Irish students" as a simple international-applicant variant misses the real planning problem. This guide sets out exactly how HPAT and UCAT differ, how CAO and UCAS applications run side by side, what home fee status actually means for Irish nationals in the UK after Brexit, and the Irish government-funded medicine places at Queen's University Belfast, including whether they continue for 2027 entry.

What Is the HPAT and How Does It Differ from the UCAT?

The Health Professions Admission Test – Ireland (HPAT-Ireland) is developed by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) and is required for undergraduate medicine entry at six Irish institutions: the University of Galway, RCSI, Trinity College Dublin, University College Cork (UCC), University College Dublin (UCD) and the University of Limerick. It is also required for two University of Limerick professional-qualification courses: the MSc Occupational Therapy and the MSc Speech and Language Therapy. HPAT-Ireland is a 2.5-hour computer-based multiple-choice test of 114 questions across three sections — Logical Reasoning and Problem Solving, Interpersonal Understanding, and Non-Verbal Reasoning — and special understanding of any academic discipline is not required.

The UCAT is a completely different instrument, required for the medicine courses at UCAT Consortium universities and booked through a UCAT account with the UCAT Consortium, not through the CAO or UCAS. It runs to just under two hours across four sections: Verbal Reasoning (44 questions, 22 minutes), Decision Making (35 questions, 37 minutes), Quantitative Reasoning (36 questions, 26 minutes) and Situational Judgement (69 questions, 26 minutes) — 184 questions in total. Abstract Reasoning, once a fifth UCAT section, was withdrawn from the test in 2025, and the UCAT Consortium's test format page lists four subtests.

The two tests differ in format, timing and content. HPAT-Ireland's Logical Reasoning and Problem Solving section involves comprehending and analysing information to formulate a solution or plausible hypotheses; the UCAT's Decision Making section assesses the ability to make sound decisions and judgements using complex information, in 37 minutes for 35 questions, whereas HPAT-Ireland allows 2.5 hours for 114 questions across its three sections. HPAT-Ireland's Interpersonal Understanding section assesses the ability to identify, understand and infer the thoughts, feelings, behaviour and intent of others, while the UCAT's Situational Judgement subtest measures the capacity to understand real-world situations and identify critical factors and appropriate behaviour in dealing with them. Because the sections, question counts and timings differ, students preparing for both should treat them as two separate preparation programmes, not one topic studied twice.

Do Irish Students Need the HPAT, the UCAT, or Both?

The answer depends entirely on which medical schools are on your application list, not on your nationality. If every course on your CAO list is an Irish medical programme, you sit only the HPAT. If you are applying through UCAS to a UK medical school that requires the UCAT — whether alongside a CAO application or instead of one — you must sit the UCAT. The reverse is also true: the Irish courses that require HPAT-Ireland ask for an HPAT–Ireland score.

Some Irish Leaving Certificate students sit both tests in the same cycle to keep both routes open — applying to Irish universities via the CAO in one round, and to UK medical schools via UCAS in a separate round. This is logistically manageable because the two testing windows fall in different parts of the year: HPAT-Ireland in February (13–16 February 2026; check hpat-ireland.acer.org for the 2027 dates), UCAT between July and September. The two application deadlines are also different — for 2026 entry the CAO's normal closing date was 1 February 2026, while the UCAS equal consideration date for most medicine, dentistry and veterinary medicine/science courses for 2027 entry is 15 October 2026 — so a February HPAT sitting does not clash with a summer UCAT preparation programme.

How Do Irish Students Apply to UK Medical Schools via UCAS?

For 2027 entry, UCAS applications opened on 12 May 2026 and the equal consideration date for Oxford and Cambridge and for most courses in medicine, dentistry, and veterinary medicine/science is 15 October 2026 at 18:00 UK time. You can add choices with a different deadline later, but you can only have five choices in total. Irish applicants list up to five choices on a single UCAS form and write a personal statement of up to 4,000 characters.

For UCAT 2026 (2027 entry), registration opened on 20 May 2026, booking opened on 23 June 2026 and the testing window ran from 13 July to 24 September 2026; the booking deadline was 16 September 2026, and registration and booking are now closed. Results are delivered to universities in early November 2026, after the UCAS deadline of 15 October 2026 has passed, although you receive your own score report before you leave the test centre. HPAT-Ireland works differently: for 2026 entry it was sat on 13–16 February 2026, after the CAO's normal closing date of 1 February 2026.

UCAT test fees depend on where you sit the test: £70 for tests taken in the UK versus £115 for tests taken outside the UK. A test taken in the Republic of Ireland is a test taken outside the UK, so it carries the £115 rate, the same as at any other test centre outside the UK — Pearson test centres run across the UK and in 130+ countries worldwide. Irish candidates who choose to test at a UK centre pay the UK rate instead; the fee follows the test's location, not the candidate's passport.

What Is Home Fee Status for Irish Students in the UK After Brexit?

Irish nationals are not treated like other EU students on fees: Queen's University Belfast charges EU Other students, a group that excludes Republic of Ireland nationals living in GB, NI or ROI, fees in line with international fees. Under the Common Travel Area (CTA), which gives Irish and UK citizens the right to access all levels of education and training in each other's state, Irish citizens who meet the residency criteria pay fees in the same way as UK students. According to Citizens Information, the Irish government's official public information service, you must be resident in Ireland or the UK for 3 years before the start of your course to be eligible under the CTA. For the 2026 to 2027 academic year, the maximum Tuition Fee Loan for a full-time student in England is £9,790 (GOV.UK); for courses starting on or after 1 January 2027, GOV.UK says student finance moves to the Lifelong Learning Entitlement, under which Tuition Fee Loans go up to a total of £39,160 (around 4 years of full-time study), with a possible extra loan for longer courses. At Queen's University Belfast, the 2026-27 medicine fee is £4,985 for Northern Ireland and for Republic of Ireland nationals resident in Ireland, £9,790 for England, Scotland or Wales, and £39,990 for international students.

Scotland is treated separately: since 2021-2022, Irish students who start a full-time degree course in Scotland must pay the same fee structure as an English student studying in Scotland. This distinction matters for UCAS strategy — an Irish applicant listing a Scottish medical school alongside English, Welsh or Northern Irish options should check the fee arrangements for each.

Irish students should also note that a UK tuition fee loan is applied for separately from fee status itself: according to Citizens Information, Irish students applying through UCAS are sent an application form for a tuition fee loan when they are offered a place on a course.

Key HPAT and UCAT Dates: CAO 2026 Entry and UCAS 2027 Entry

Because the two systems run on separate calendars, it helps to see both timelines side by side when planning a dual application. The CAO and HPAT-Ireland dates below are the 2026-entry dates published on cao.ie (applications opened on 5 November 2025 and HPAT-Ireland was sat on 13–16 February 2026); the UCAT and UCAS dates are for 2027 entry.

The CAO timetable lists 5 November 2026 as the date the CAO application facility opens for 2027 applications. The practical implication: the two columns above cover different entry years, and the UCAT and UCAS stage comes first. For 2027 entry, the UCAT window (13 July to 24 September 2026) and the UCAS equal consideration date for most medicine courses (15 October 2026) fall in 2026, whereas the CAO's 2026-entry timetable ran from applications opening on 5 November 2025 to a main offer round on 26 August 2026. Because decisions from the two systems arrive at different points, it is worth deciding in advance how much weight to place on each route while waiting.

Which UK Medical Schools Are Realistic for Irish Applicants?

Because Irish citizens who meet the residency criteria pay fees in the same way as UK students, the useful question is how each university assesses applicants — its own UCAT weighting, academic requirements and interview process. For the general picture of how UK medical schools use UCAT scores and what recent cut-offs looked like, see our UCAT score requirements guide.

Queen's University Belfast (QUB) has a scheme that deserves specific mention. In a gov.ie announcement of 29 February 2024, the Irish government said funding would be made available for 25 additional medical places at Queen's for qualifying students from Ireland or Northern Ireland from September 2024, with a further 25 places from September 2025, bringing the total number of additional places to 50 across the 2024/25 and 2025/26 intakes; the places are co-funded by the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science and the Department of Health. According to the same announcement, students who take up these places would pay the same student contribution rate as students at medical schools in Ireland and would commit to applying to take up a position in the HSE as an intern at the end of their studies. The announcement said the scheme was only available to applicants deemed eligible for the Northern Ireland and Ireland domiciled fee rate for 2024/25 entry, and that applicants would apply in the usual way via UCAS and sit the UCAT. For 2027 entry, Queen's Admission Policy Statement for Medicine says the university is in discussions with the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science to consider continuing the agreement for medicine places funded by the Irish Government, with an update to follow once the process is finalised; check Queen's own admissions pages. For the full entry profile, including UCAT expectations, see our Queen's University Belfast medicine guide. Queen's also says that, for applicants offering the Irish Leaving Certificate, performance at Junior Certificate is taken into account when shortlisting for interview.

Beyond Queen's, Irish applicants should approach UK medical school selection the way any UCAT candidate does — checking each school's published UCAT weighting and Situational Judgement banding requirements before finalising a UCAS shortlist, since a school that places heavy weight on UCAT will suit a different applicant profile than one that treats it as a secondary filter.

How Should Irish Students Prepare for Both Tests?

Students committing to both HPAT and UCAT in one cycle should treat preparation as two separate blocks rather than one continuous programme, because the formats, section timings and question styles differ. One practical sequence for students applying to both systems for the same entry year: the UCAT test window (13 July to 24 September in 2026) feeds the UCAS equal consideration date of 15 October for most medicine courses, so do the UCAT block first, then move to HPAT-specific practice ahead of the HPAT-Ireland test window in February (13–16 February 2026; check hpat-ireland.acer.org for the 2027 dates), giving the Non-Verbal Reasoning and Interpersonal Understanding sections sustained practice over months rather than weeks. Whichever test you sit second, treat it as an unfamiliar format even if the first went well: the UCAT's four subtests and HPAT-Ireland's three sections are separately structured and timed, so do not assume that preparation for one shortens preparation for the other.

Students applying to UK medicine only, without a CAO application, follow the UCAT timeline alone. Registration and booking for the UCAT 2026 closed with the booking deadline of 16 September 2026 (the last test day was 24 September 2026), so applicants for 2027 entry who have sat the test are now finalising their UCAS choices before the 15 October 2026 equal consideration date for most medicine courses. The UCAT Consortium says instructions on how to register and book for the UCAT 2027 will be published in March 2027; register as soon as the window opens and book a date early enough to leave time to review performance and finalise UCAS choices. See our guide to UCAT test centres for international students for booking logistics, and our general UCAT guide for international applicants for the wider preparation framework that applies regardless of home country.

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Reviewed September 2026: dates, figures and rules checked against the UCAT Consortium, HPAT-Ireland (ACER), CAO, UCAS, GOV.UK, Queen's University Belfast, gov.ie and Citizens Information.

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