China (Mainland) / Entry requirements
General requirements for undergraduate courses
Foundation year
Applicants who have completed senior high school will be expected to complete a University-recognised foundation programme before joining an undergraduate course. This is due to differences in the education systems which means that students in the UK have usually completed one more year of study whilst at school. We also do not accept the Gaokao for direct entry to our degree courses.
University of Manchester Integrated Foundation Years
We will consider applicants with an overall grade of 80% or higher, including a minimum of 90% if a specific subject is required. For further guidance please contact the admissions team for your chosen course.
Please note: We do not offer an integrated foundation year for courses in the Faculty of Humanities. However, most courses are available through the foundation programme provided by our official partner, INTO Manchester.
INTO Manchester Foundation Programmes
Our official partner, INTO Manchester, is located next to our campus in the centre of the city of Manchester. INTO offers several foundation programmes which have been developed specifically to prepare international students to study at a world-class university such as Manchester.
You can find out more by visiting their website.
Northern Consortium (NCUK)
We are a member of the Northern Consortium (NCUK), which offers an International Foundation Year (IFY) at Beijing, Changsha, Chengdu, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Kunming, Lanzhou, Qingdao, Shanghai, Suzhou, Wuhan and Xi'an. Students who have completed the foundation programme and have obtained the required grades will be considered for admission to the degree course.
Direct entry to The University of Manchester
We accept various international qualifications for direct entry to year 1 of our undergraduate courses. This includes A-Levels and the International Baccalaureate. You can find the full entry requirements on our course profiles.
Students who completed at least one year of undergraduate studies from a recognised Chinese university may be considered for direct entry to some of the first-year undergraduate programmes. However, we strongly advise you to check this with the admissions team of the relevant programme before making the application. Applications must be made through UCAS.
General information
The University will consider the Canadian Ontario Secondary School Diploma (OSSD) for Year 1 entry under the following conditions:
- where it has been taught in person within the province of Ontario in Canada at a school officially authorised to award the full OSSD;
- where Grades 10-12 (the final 3 academic years) as well as the Ontario Secondary School Literary Test (OSSLT) have been taught in person, in Ontario;
- We expect students to have achieved all 30 credits from Canadian OSSD courses, and for these to be detailed on their transcript.
We will consider the OSSD from students domiciled outside of Canada only where the student is attending one of the 19 brick-and-mortar international schools approved by the Ontario Ministry of Education. Explore the list of approved schools.
Awarding schools must be listed on the Canadian Ontario Government website as a school authorised to award Ontario Secondary School Diploma credits:
The decision to accept the OSSD from a school in Canada is at the discretion of each academic school.
Students who are undertaking the OSSD outside of Canada at a school not listed, will not be accepted for entry onto our programmes. This includes schools overseas, which may have a partnership with a school physically in Canada.
We require that the OSSD is studied in person. Diplomas studied via distance learning will not be accepted for entry onto our courses.
‘Fast track’ or ‘top-up’ routes will not be accepted. Students applying with the OSSD must have completed the qualification in line with the regulations above over three academic years including Grades 10, 11, and 12. Resit years will not count towards the three year minimum.
Required OSSD Documents
- Transcripts provided by applicants will not be considered.
- Transcripts must be provided directly by the school and confirmed as being the final results.
- The school will also be required to submit a letter confirming that each student has studied Grades 10-12 in person, in Ontario, or at one of the 19 approved international schools. This may be a condition of your offer.
General requirements for postgraduate/research courses
Taught master's
Entry requirements differ between courses but generally taught master's applicants with a bachelor's degree from a recognised good-quality Chinese university, with a minimum overall average grade of 80% or a minimum GPA of 3.0 (out of 4.0) will be considered for admission on to taught masters programmes.
Please refer to the entrance requirements of individual programmes for further guidance.
PhD
Applicants with an undergraduate bachelors degree with a minimum grade of 80% and, in many cases, a master's degree from a recognised Chinese university will be considered for postgraduate research programmes of Master of Philosophy (MPhil) or Doctor of Philosophy (PhD).
As the research programmes involve individual supervision, we strongly recommend the applicant makes initial enquiries with the supervisor or the relevant school first. A research proposal is required when submitting your application.
English language requirements
All applicants to the University (from the UK and overseas) are required to show evidence of English language proficiency.
UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI) requires that every student from outside the UK and the EU must show evidence of a minimum level of English language in order to be granted a student route visa to study at undergraduate or postgraduate level. This level is often called the ‘B2 level’.
Additionally, our individual Schools may ask for specific English language proficiency levels that are necessary for their academic programmes. In most cases, these requirements are likely to be higher than the B2 level. Further information about our English language policy, including a list of some of the English language qualifications we accept, can be found here.
Some Schools ask that the appropriate score has been met before you apply for a course, while others give conditional offers subject to applicants achieving our general entry requirement level of English language proficiency before starting the course.
Under certain circumstances, the University may consider IGCSE/O-level English, or International Baccalaureate Language (English) or Language and Literature (English) at high grades as a recognised English language qualification.
Other entry requirements
Please note that this is general information only. Faculties and Schools have different entry requirements and some qualifications may not be acceptable for certain courses, so it is important to check with the School directly before you apply.
Some courses have additional entry requirements such as previous work experience, submission of written work with the application or previous study of a particular subject.