๐Ÿง Core Psychiatry Training 2026/27

Verified 9 October 2026

At a glance

Competition ratio
21.8โ€‰:โ€‰1
10,677 appsยท489 posts
Very high
Source: NHS England 2025 โ†—
Entry point
ST1

Your training journey

Step 1
Medical School
5-6 yrs
Step 2
Foundation Training
2 yrs
Current
Core Psychiatry
3 yrs
CT1-CT3
Step 5
CCT

Hear from trainees

Recommended resources

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Application process

New for 2027
  • In 2027, UK graduates and others in the priority group are offered interviews and training posts first. Read more here.

Key dates for August 2027 intake

One UK-wide round run by the National Psychiatry Recruitment Office. Two MSRA sittings (January open to all specialties, February reserved for Core Psychiatry and GP) feed into a single ranked list.

Applications
Applications open
Next
At 10am Thursday 22 October 2026
Applications close
At 4pm Thursday 19 November 2026
MSRA
MSRA sitting one
Tuesday 5 January to Wednesday 20 January 2027 (open to all specialties)
MSRA sitting two
Wednesday 10 February to Thursday 18 February 2027 (reserved for Core Psychiatry and GP applicants)
Offers
Preferences open
Wednesday 24 February 2027 (time to be confirmed)
Preferences close
Thursday 18 March 2027 (time to be confirmed)
Initial offers released
To be confirmed
Hold deadline
At 9am Friday 9 April 2027
Upgrade deadline
At 4pm Wednesday 14 April 2027
Source: NHS England / NPRO 2027 โ†—
One application, three streams. A single Oriel application covers CT1 Core Psychiatry AND the run-through ST1 pathways in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (CAP) and Psychiatry of Learning Disability (LD). You preference all available posts across all three streams.
Lead recruiter

National Psychiatry Recruitment Office (NPRO)

UK-wide recruitment run by NPRO in partnership with the Royal College of Psychiatrists. Single application covers all regional Core Psychiatry programmes.

Top-rated trusts for Core Psychiatry Training, as rated by doctors