Pre-allocation process, if allocated to Scotland

The Scottish Foundation School aims to accommodate applicants who have been pre-allocated to Scotland within the region most appropriate to their circumstances, based on the information provided in their application. This may include allocation to the East, North, South-East, or West region, as indicated by the details and supporting evidence submitted as part of the pre-allocation application process.

Pre-allocation DOES NOT guarantee first choice preference of Group (e.g. E08, N05, S02, W13).

The Oriel system requires you to rank your Group preferences, so you must do this even if you are being allocated through pre-allocation.

You should rank the Group preferences in the order you provided to the Scottish Foundation School.

Group allocation will be released at the same time as other applicants via Oriel, following the national timeline.

The pre-allocation process only applies to Group allocation stage only. Once you have been allocated to a Group, your programme will be allocated based upon your preference and PIA rank.

As part of pre-allocation, the Scottish Foundation School cannot guarantee a specific Group, but we will endeavour to meet your request to be placed in a particular region (East, North, South-East or West). 

If your pre-allocation is approved and you are pre-allocated to the Scottish Foundation School using the national process and guidelines, the Scottish Foundation School team will contact you via the email address provided on your Oriel application. Please do not contact the Foundation School team in advance of this.

The Scottish Foundation School will ask you to rank your top five preferred Groups, your preferences must reflect the information you have provided in your pre-allocation application.

The Associate Postgraduate Dean(s) for your preferred region will allocate you to a Group based upon the information in your application, your home location, your Group preferences, and the overall Group allocations for applicants approved for pre-allocation.

Applicants approved for pre-allocation are not guaranteed their first choice of Group.  Applicants should not contact the local regional teams regarding pre-allocation, this process in managed centrally by the Scottish Foundation School.

We welcome pre-allocation applicants to the Foundation School who have met the UKFPO criteria and been approved by the national panel(s). All applicants approved under any of the 5 pre-allocation criteria will have their pre-allocation application to Scotland processed in the same way. 

The Scotland Deanery has 4 regions (East, North, South-East and West) and we will offer flexibility to either select the Foundation region aligned with your medical school or a different Scottish region PROVIDED your criterion for application remains consistent with your application criterion AND you have a valid contemporaneous address in the region where you will be supported. UKFPO proof of address criteria.

For example:

• You attended Aberdeen medical school, and you are accepted through the UKFPO process for pre-allocation and provide a North region address, you will be allocated to the North region.
• You attended Dundee medical school, and your family support is based in the South-East and you provide an address in the South-East, you will be pre-allocated to the South-East region.
• You attended a university medical school out-with Scotland, and you are applying under criterion 1 (parent/legal guardian) and your family support is based in the West region, and you provide an address in the West, you will be allocated to the West region.

The overall UKFPO system is applicable e.g. if you are applying under criterion 4 Primary Carer or 5 Widening Participation, you can only be allocated to the Foundation School local to your medical school. Graduates of Scottish medical schools applying via criteria 4 or 5 are able to specify allocation to any of the four Scottish Foundation regions.

1. Foundation School Team receive approved pre-allocation names and forms from UKFPO (approx. January of each year)
2. Pre-allocation applicants are asked by the Scottish Foundation School Team to preference their ‘top 5 groups’ e.g. E01, N07, S13, W15 etc via MS Form
3. Pre-allocation forms and applicant preferences are shared with the regional Associate Postgraduate Deans (APGDs)
4. Regional APGDs allocates applicant to a group based on individual applicant preferences provided and the information based on the pre-allocation application form
5. Pre-allocation applicants must preference groups in Oriel in the same order as provided to the Foundation School
6. Pre-allocated to a group in Oriel
7. Group match run, as per national timeline
8. Pre-allocation applicants must the preference all programmes in their allocated group, note this is the same process for standard FP applicants.
9. Allocation to programme is based on preference and PIA rank.
10. Programme match is run, as per national timeline.