Which universities require the TMUA for 2027 entry

Before the table, the rule that makes sense of it.

The TMUA is course-led, not institution-led. No university requires it of every applicant, and several require a different UAT-UK test for their other courses.

Imperial is the clearest case:

19 courses need the TMUA, and around forty others need the ESAT instead. The heading on Imperial's section of the official list reads "either the ESAT or the TMUA is compulsory", and which one depends entirely on the course.

So find your UCAS code below, not your university.

Here's how that breaks down:

If your course is not in that table, you do not need the TMUA. If it is not in the table but your university appears, check whether the course requires the ESAT or TARA instead.

If it is in the table, the complete TMUA guide covers what you have just signed up for: the format, the dates, the fee and how the score works.

Two additions, and both are large enough that pages written a year ago are now wrong.

1. Oxford is on the list for the first time. All five of its TMUA courses are new, because Oxford retired the Mathematics Admissions Test, which ran from 2007 to 2025, and adopted the TMUA in its place.

2. Cambridge added Mathematics (G100). Cambridge already required the TMUA for Computer Science and Economics, and Mathematics joins them for 2027 entry.

   Note that this is in addition to STEP, not instead of it.

Nothing else about the test changed. The format, the 1.0 to 9.0 scale and the scoring method are all the same as the previous cycle.

The practical effect is on the size and strength of the field rather than on the test. Candidate numbers rose from 13,855 to 16,092 between 2025 and 2026 entry, before Oxford's applicants were fully reflected.

Both words appear in the official list and they mean genuinely different things.

Compulsory means the application is incomplete without it. UAT-UK put it bluntly: if you do not register and take the test, it may invalidate your application.

Recommended means the university will use a score if you have one, and will not reject you for not having one.

That sounds like an easy skip. Durham shows why it often is not.

So a recommended test can be worth a grade. Whether it is worth the fee and the preparation is a judgement, but it is not the same as optional-and-ignored.

Several universities used the TMUA in the Cambridge Assessment era and appear in neither the 2026 nor the 2027 UAT-UK course list.

Lancaster, Sheffield, Southampton, Cardiff, Bath and Nottingham are the names that still turn up on prep sites and in older forum threads.

They are not on the current list, so the TMUA is not part of their published requirements for 2027 entry.

Whether any of them would still look at a score you happen to have is not something we can establish, and nor can anyone else, because none of them publishes a position on it.

If it matters to your application, ask that university's admissions office directly rather than relying on any page, including this one.

Each of these sends people to the wrong test or the wrong preparation, and all four are common.

1. UCL Computer Science uses TARA, not TMUA. So do UCL Computer Science and Mathematics, Mechanical Engineering, and Robotics. UCL Electronic and Electrical Engineering uses the ESAT.

   At UCL the TMUA covers the two Economics degrees and nothing else. TARA is a reasoning test with no mathematics content in the TMUA sense, so preparing for the wrong one is weeks wasted. See the TARA guide.

2. Cambridge Mathematics needs the TMUA and STEP. The TMUA has not replaced STEP at Cambridge. Offers for Mathematics typically require grades in two STEP papers as well, and the TMUA is used earlier in the process.

3. Warwick has two exemptions. Applicants eligible for a contextual offer are exempt from the otherwise compulsory requirement. And Warwick Mathematics applicants are typically required to take TMUA or STEP, so the TMUA is one of two routes rather than the only one.

4. The L101 discrepancy. The UAT-UK list gives LSE's BSc Economics as L101. UCL uses L101 for its BSc Economics with Study Abroad.

   Both readings appear in the same official document, and we are not going to assert which is right. Check the code on LSE's own course page before you book.

A fifth, smaller oddity worth noting: the official list gives the same code, N321, for both LSE Actuarial Science degrees. It is unlikely to affect your booking, but it is another reason to confirm codes at source.

This page is a summary of an official document, and summaries go stale. The list above was checked on 26 August 2026, and UAT-UK update theirs without announcement.

Four checks settle it for your specific application, in the order worth doing them.

1. Match the UCAS code, not the course name. Universities run near-identical degrees under different codes, and the requirement follows the code.

   BEng and MEng versions of the same subject often differ, and so do year-abroad and placement variants.

2. Check which test, not just whether there is one. Four of these seven institutions use more than one UAT-UK test. Seeing "admissions test required" on a course page is not the same as seeing "TMUA".

3. Read the university's own course page. UAT-UK say directly that candidates must check the relevant course pages before booking, and that they cannot be held responsible where a test is not booked in line with the entrance requirements.

   Where the two disagree, the university's page is the one that governs your application.

4. Do it for all five choices, not just your firm. The requirement attaches to each course independently, and one choice is enough to commit you.

If you have not settled on your five choices by the booking deadline, the safe move is to book if any course you are seriously considering requires it. A test you sat and did not need costs the fee.

A test you needed and did not sit can invalidate an application.

Most candidates choose between October and January. Some do not.

Oxford and Cambridge applicants must sit in the October window, 12 to 16 October 2026. There are two narrow exceptions: mature applicants to a Cambridge mature college with a January admissions deadline, and applicants to Oxford's Astrophoria Foundation Year.

Everyone else may choose, and UAT-UK say there is no advantage to either sitting.

The consequence that catches people out follows from being allowed only one sitting per cycle.

The two cohorts do score differently, by 0.84 of a point in 2026 entry, though the scaling applied to them is identical.

Every deadline, including booking, bursaries and access arrangements, is on the dates and registration guide.

Two of the seven publish something. Five publish nothing at all.

Warwick state that in the 2025-entry cycle the majority of offers went to applicants scoring 5.0 and above, while saying the exact requirement will not be published.

Durham use 5.0 as the threshold for automatic reduced-offer eligibility, with a lower floor set annually between 3.2 and 3.5.

Cambridge, Oxford, LSE and UCL publish no threshold of any kind. Imperial publishes no threshold either, but does publish an anonymised dashboard of historic score distributions and outcomes by department.

So any specific figure you find for those four did not come from the university.

And every benchmark from before 2024 is invalid regardless, because the scale was rebuilt. Durham state that a 2023 score of 6.5 equates to 5.0 today.

What the real distribution looks like is on what is a good TMUA score.

And whatever your university expects, the preparation is the same. Every official paper from 2016 to 2023 is free with worked answers on the past papers page.