University of Manchester School of Dentistry: Overview

University of Manchester School of Dentistry is the highest-ranked dental school in the north of England according to the 2020 QS World Rankings. Future dentists studying at Manchester can benefit from a lot of small-group teaching, as well as early clinical exposure (which starts in year 1).

Manchester also offers an intercalated BSc that you can complete alongside your dental degree between years 2 and 3. This allows students to expand their knowledge, embark on a research project and explore their interests outside of dentistry.

Besides strictly academic aspects of studying dentistry at Manchester, it is also one of the best cities in the UK to live as a student. It has everything you need, from great transport links and plenty of shops to clubs and bars to hang out with friends.

Selection For BDS Dentistry Interviews at the University of Manchester (A206/A204):

🔢 BDS Dentistry Interviews: University of Manchester Entry Requirements

GCSEs & Predicted grades: The University of Manchester takes a holistic approach to selecting students for dentistry interviews. They may consider your achieved and predicted grades during the selection process, but it is not known what weight they are given compared to other elements of the application.

Personal Statement: Not used when selecting for interviews, but may be used to help navigate decision-making at other parts of the selection process (e.g. during the interviews, or after interviews).

UCAT: Your UCAT score constitutes an important element of the application process (if not the most significant). Manchester first ranks all applications in descending UCAT scores, before taking other application elements into account. Manchester won’t accept applicants with Band 4 in the Situational Judgement Test.

📊 What is the UCAT cut-off score to get an interview at the University of Manchester?

The UCAT threshold score at Manchester will vary from year to year, as it is dependent on a few factors, such as the number of people who apply, and the average scores of the cohort. For 2021 entry, the UCAT cut-off score at Manchester was 2450, but the average score of those who have been invited to a dentistry interview at Manchester was 2720.

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📤 When does Manchester start sending interview invitations?

First students will be invited to dentistry interviews in December of the application cycle. Manchester will then continue to send interview invitations until all interview spots are filled.

👨‍👩‍👦‍👦 Manchester Dental School Interviews: Number of interviews

🇬🇧 Home Students: For the 2021 entry, 1018 students applied from the UK, and the top-scoring 363 students have been invited to a dentistry interview. This means Manchester interviews around 36% of all home students who apply.

🌍 International Students: For 2021 entry 83 international students applied for dentistry at Manchester, but only 6 (7%) have been interviewed.

💡 How To Prepare for Dentistry Interviews at the University of Manchester?

Preparing for dentistry interviews requires more than just reading an article or doing a mock interview. It requires intentionality, structure and commitment. Luckily, with Dentfully it is simpler and more efficient than ever:

🦷 University of Manchester Dentistry Interview Questions:

Motivations for dentistry:

• Why would you like to study dentistry?
• BDS dentistry is a long course, that requires a lot of studying and hands-on work. How will you manage?
• Do you think you’d make for a good dentist? Why?
• What would you do if you didn’t get any offers for dentistry this year?
• If dentistry didn’t exist, what else would you study and why?

A realistic understanding of a career in dentistry:

• What have you learned from your work experience?
• What would you like to achieve as a dentist? Where do you see yourself in 10 years?
• What did your work experience show you about the role of teamwork in dentistry?
• What appeals to you the least about being a dentist?
• What are the 3 main challenges that dentists face nowadays? Do the challenges differ between the NHS and private practice?

Contribution to the University of Manchester:

• We’ve had over a thousand applications for dentistry this year. Why should we choose you?
• How can you contribute to the student community here at Manchester?

Dental ethics:

• You are a 5th-year dental student 3-weeks into a surgical rotation in a new hospital. While walking into the changing room, you notice one of the young dentists nervously placing a bottle into his locker. As they pass you by, you strongly smell the odour of alcohol. What would you do?
• You recommend a patient root canal treatment for their infected tooth. It’s the cheapest and most efficient solution in this case. However, they have had unpleasant complications after previous root canal treatment and refuse. As a dentist, what would you do?

Dental role-play:

• You were supposed to take care of your friend's cat, while they were on holiday. A few hours before your friend was meant to come back, you realised you forgot to close the front door and the cat went missing. You tried looking around the house but to no avail. Your friend (Max), just arrived home. Break the news to them.

NHS and Hot Topics:

• Let’s make a short debate. Argue for the statement that all dental treatment should be free in the NHS.
• What are the positive and negative long-term consequences of Covid-19 on dentistry in the UK?
• Is amalgam better than composite? Consider the pros and cons of each material.

🚀 TOP Tip: Have a hard time answering any of the above questions? You’ll find insider tactics to tackle all of the above questions and formulate convincing and structured answers at Dentfully - UK’s first All-in-one Dentistry Interview Preparation Tool

Please note that these aren’t questions that have been asked at Manchester in past years. Publishing such information would be against Manchester’s policy. The above questions are adjusted for the interview style at the University of Manchester and are meant to give you a broad sense of the questions you may face.

Manchester BDS Dentistry Interviews (2023 entry):

🗓️ Manchester BDS Dentistry Interview dates (2022):

Most likely this year Manchester will conduct their interviews for bds dentistry in January and February 2023.

💬 Interview format at Manchester Dental School

For the 2022 entry, Manchester conducted online MMI interviews for BDS dentistry. The MMI was comprised of 4-5 mini-interviews, each with a different interviewer. The entire experience lasted around 50-60 minutes.

There were 7 minutes allocated per station and students had around 2 minutes of preparation time before each station. This doesn’t mean, however, that they’ve had to talk for 7 minutes straight - it is likely that each station contained 2-3 questions, all around the same topic.

In the MMI at Manchester, you started with a random station and progressed through the stations in an order decided by the university until you’ve completed the entire circuit

It’s not yet known whether this year’s interviews will take place online or in person. We’ll update this section as soon as that information becomes available, but you can also check Manchester’s official website for the latest updates. You’ll be given more details on the interview format with the invitation email.

🏆 Manchester Dental Interviews: How many offers?

🇬🇧 Home Students: 363 students were interviewed for 2021 entry dentistry and 175 top-scoring students (48%) have received an offer.

🌍 International Students: In 2021, only 6 international students have been interviewed for dentistry at Manchester and 4 have then received an offer (67%). Although the number of places for international students is capped at 7.5% of the cohort, usually Manchester interviews and gives over 10 offers to international students.

⏳ Manchester Dentistry Interview: Waiting time

The decision won’t be made on the day of the interview, as other elements of your application may be summed up with your interview performance. For that reason, it usually takes a few weeks for the admissions team at Manchester to inform you about their final decision.

✅ Manchester Dental School Interviews: 3 Tips

🤩 Let the interviewers get to know you

Remember to be your genuine self in your interview and let the interviewers get to know you a little bit better. After all, that’s the main purpose of the interview - to see what kind of a person you are and if you have the right personality to embark on a dental course.

Don’t try to be someone else, to be excessively formal or to impress the interviewers. Remember that being inauthentic comes across and that it’s rarely treated as a good sign.

⚖️ Make sure you can dissect ethical scenarios

Dental ethics is a topic that comes up fairly often in dentistry interviews. You may be asked to consider an ethical dilemma (a scenario where there is no simple solution) or explain how you’d behave in a certain clinical scenario (a bit like on the SJT).

If you register at dentfully.co.uk you’ll get access to our interview guide on dental ethics, containing example ethical scenarios and the best tactics to tackle them. Reading the GDC’s 9 Standards for dental professionals will also give you a good understanding of what’s expected from dentists at work and beyond.

👁️ Work on your non-verbal communication

When preparing for interviews, we tend to focus on the content of our answers. However, we’d like to convince you that your body language is at least as important.

In fact, a famous series of studies by Dr Albert Mehrabian concluded that as much as 55% of communication is conveyed through non-verbal aspects! For that reason, make sure you work on your non-verbal communication during your interview prep.

Have a good posture, keep your body open (avoid crossing your arms), keep eye contact, smile when talking about something you are passionate about and watch out for nervous twitches.

🤞 Good luck in your Manchester Dentistry Interviews! If you are looking for some interview help, check our Interview Preparation Tool.