Foundation Allocation Scotland First Process
The Scottish Foundation School, working in partnership with Scotland's medical schools, will match Scottish graduates to Foundation post in Scotland through the Scotland First process.
- The Scotland First process will be available to all student who will receive a Primary Medical Qualification (PMQ) from a Scottish medical school.
- Students who opt into the Scotland First process will be guaranteed allocation to the Scottish Foundation School.
- Participation in the process does not guarantee allocation to a specific region or location in Scotland.
- To be eligible, Scottish PMQ students must still submit and complete a Foundation Programme application through Oriel.
- Eligible students will be contacted with further information after the Foundation Programme application window closes on 7 October 2026.
- Students who need to be allocated to a particular location due to personal circumstances must apply through the UKFPO pre-allocation process. Applications for pre-allocation form part of the main Foundation Programme application process.
- Students will have an opportunity to withdraw from the Scotland First process should they choose to do so.
- Once allocated to Scotland, allocation to a Foundation group and programme will take place through the existing two-stage allocation process using Oriel and the Preference Informed Allocation (PIA) algorithm.
- Students who are not Scottish PMQ students can still rank Scotland as usual through the Oriel application process and will be allocated remaining Foundation places through the usual PIA algorithm.
This page was last updated on: 09.09.2026 at 15.34