Neuroscience offer rates and entry requirements

Data: UCAS End of Cycle 2025 and university course pages, updated November 2026. Methodology

UCAS does not publish an offer rate for neuroscience. Most neuroscience degrees sit in the biological and sport sciences subject area (CAH03), so the rates below are that subject area at the universities that run a neuroscience course we track. Read them as a guide to the university, not to the neuroscience course itself.

How the subject-area offer rate has changed

Nationally the rate was 89% in 2019, fell to 84% in 2022, and stood at 89% in 2025. Applications went from 81,260 to 87,875 over the same period.

Most selective universities with a neuroscience course

1 of the 23 universities we list made offers to fewer than half of applicants. These are the lowest rates among universities with at least 200 applications, so a single small year does not distort the list.

Where most applicants get an offer

12 of 23 universities made offers to at least 90% of applicants, and the median university sat at 91%. Large examples include University of Exeter (92%), University of Birmingham (91%), University of York (98%), University of Warwick (94%), University of Essex (95%) and Royal Holloway, University of London (97%). A high rate does not mean any grades will do: offers still come with conditions, and missing them on results day is where most applicants lose a place.

What grades neuroscience courses ask for

Across the 36 courses with an A-level typical offer, the most common offers are AAA (10 courses), AAB (9 courses), ABB (9 courses), BBB (3 courses). The highest offers below belong to the most selective courses.

Turning a rate into your own odds

The offer rate is the starting point, not the answer. Two things move your chances far more than the average: how your predicted grades compare with the typical offer, and how strong the rest of the field is at that university. At a university where 91% of applicants get an offer, predicted grades at or above the typical offer usually mean an offer. At a university under 30%, almost everyone applying already meets the typical offer, so predicted grades only get you into the pile; the personal statement, reference, admissions test and interview decide the rest.

A sensible neuroscience list has at most one or two choices from the most selective table above, two where your predictions match the typical offer and one where you are a grade or two above it. That spread is what keeps the chance of ending up with no offers low. OfferCheck tracks 37 neuroscience courses with a typical offer or offer-rate figure, each with its own page.

How to use these numbers

• An offer rate describes everyone who applied, not you. Compare your predicted grades with each course's typical offer first.
• Spread your five choices: one or two ambitious, two that match your predictions and one where you are comfortably above the typical offer.
• See which offer to firm once decisions arrive, and when universities send offers if you are still waiting.