Which universities require the LNAT? The 2027 entry list

Twelve universities use the LNAT for 2027 entry: nine in the UK and three abroad.

1. UK: Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, LSE, King's College London, Durham, Bristol, Glasgow and SOAS.

2. Abroad: IE University (Spain), Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and O.P. Jindal Global University (India).

The requirement belongs to the course. If even one of your UCAS choices is an LNAT course, you sit the test, and that one score goes to every LNAT university you select in your LNAT account.

Here is every LNAT university, the courses that need it and the date you must sit by.

LNAT keeps the official list on its Do I need to sit the test? page:

Oxford and Cambridge share one deadline: sit by 15 October 2026, which has now passed.

A few routes have their own dates:

1. Oxford Foundation Year in Law: sit before 13 January 2027.

2. Cambridge mature applicants in the January round: book by 20 January and sit by 25 January 2027.

3. UCL: no interview for the three-year LLB, but a language interview for the European legal systems courses.

For the register, sit and UCAS dates side by side, see which LNAT deadline is mine?

Every LNAT university sees the same two things: your score out of 42 and your unmarked essay.

What they do with each varies a lot:

The averages split into two groups. At Oxford, Cambridge, UCL and KCL, offer-holders average about 30.

At Durham, Bristol and Glasgow they sit at 23 to 25, much closer to the typical applicant.

For averages by university and your chance of an offer at each score, see what is a good LNAT score. For how each one treats the essay, see how universities mark the LNAT essay.

Oxford has the most detail of all, from shortlisting weights to offer rates by score, in our Oxford LNAT guide.

Six details on the list matter more than they look:

1. SOAS only needs it for some applicants. You must sit the LNAT if you have an Access to HE Diploma, BTECs (even alongside A-levels), the WJEC Applied Diploma in Criminology, a foundation year or other non-standard qualifications. A-level and IB applicants do not, but SOAS will consider lower offers for those who sit it and perform well.

2. KCL's Law with Criminology needs it too. KCL's own page for Law with Criminology (M110) requires the LNAT, though the course is missing from LNAT's list.

3. Bristol's course list differs from LNAT's. Bristol's 2027 statement names Law (M100) and Law and Modern Languages (MR20); LNAT's list prints M100 and MR11 to MR13.

4. Glasgow exempts graduates. If you already hold a degree, you do not need the LNAT for any Glasgow LLB. Everyone else does.

5. IE University makes it optional. A score of 22 or above is accepted in place of IE's own admissions test.

6. SUSS runs on a later calendar. Its law intake starts in July, and you must register and sit the test before 15 March 2027.

One more:

Oxford's Foundation Year in Law, for eligible UK state-school students, also requires the LNAT. Oxford says to take the test before 13 January 2027.

The list has changed many times since the LNAT began in 2004.

The main moves:

Neither LNAT's current list nor Nottingham's own 2027 Law page mentions the LNAT, so you do not need the LNAT for Nottingham.

Most UK law schools do not use the LNAT.

We checked the 2027-entry Law pages of 24 of them, and none asks for an admissions test:

Queen Mary's note is a reminder that policies can change. Check each course page in the year you apply.

Three rules decide whether, and when, you sit the LNAT:

1. If any choice needs it, you sit it. That applies even to a back-up choice, and the one result goes to every LNAT university you select in your LNAT account.

2. The earliest deadline wins. You can only sit once, so if you apply to Oxford and Durham you sit by 15 October, not 13 January.

3. Mixing is fine. Your other choices can be law schools that ignore the LNAT entirely.

Once you know you need it, the next steps are booking and preparation. Our guide to LNAT dates, booking, fees and bursaries covers the first, and our complete guide to the LNAT covers the test itself.

To see the questions you will face, try our free LNAT practice test, in the real four-option format.

Every fact on this page comes from these sources, checked on 15 October 2026: