Expected Academic Standard

Applicants for this course should have achieved a UK First class Honours Degree.

If your degree is not from the UK, please check International Qualifications to find the equivalent in your country.

MCL enrolment is restricted to approximately 25 students, meaning competition for places is intense.  The normal minimum academic entry requirement for law graduates seeking admission to the Cambridge MCL is a top 5-10% ranking in their class.  In a UK university, this may equate to a First Class degree.  Extra weight may be given to the performance in courses related to corporate law.  Applicants will normally have a law degree, but those qualified to practise law who have a degree in another subject are welcome to apply.

Students who are currently undertaking legal studies who will graduate soon can apply before completing their degree.  Successful applicants in this category are likely to have academic conditions attached to their offer.  If an offer is subject to academic conditions, to join the MCL in October 2024 the Postgraduate Admissions Office (PAO) must receive final evidence of the applicant having met the academic condition by 31 July 2024.  If potentially relevant academic results only become available after that date, it will not be possible for the applicant to be admitted to the MCL programme.

English Language Requirements

All applicants to the MCL programme who are not nationals of a country on the Postgraduate Admissions Office's ‘List A’ are required to take either the Academic IELTS English language proficiency test or the TOEFL English language proficiency test.  The only exception is if an applicant has successfully completed a three-year full-time bachelor's degree within the last two years in a country on List A, or is in the final year of study for a three-year full-time bachelor's degree in a country on List A.

All MCL applicants who need to take an English language proficiency test must submit their test results with their course application or as soon as possible afterwards and by 1 April 2024 at the latest.   

Applicants must obtain all of the required Academic IELTS or TOEFL scores in the same test sitting; multiple test results cannot be combined to meet the language requirement.  Please note that we do not accept TOEFL MyBest™ scores.

Language test scores must be less than two years old by the start of the MCL course in October 2024 in order to be valid.  

Please note that referrals to the University of Cambridge’s Language Centre for assessment are not permitted for the MCL course, and it is not possible to obtain a waiver of the language requirement.

University Minimum Academic Requirements

Language Requirement

Visa Information

No ATAS required

What Is An ATAS?