PACES Dates and Fees 2026 to 2027: UK GBP 742, International Centres and Windows

The window that matters now: 10 to 17 November 2026

The next PACES application window is for UK centres, diet 2027/01. Per the Federation of the Royal Colleges of Physicians' exam dates and fees page (read on 21 October 2026), it opens on 10 November 2026 at 08:00 GMT and closes on 17 November 2026 at 08:00 GMT. The UK fee is GBP 742 and the assessments run from late January to mid April 2027. The international window for the same diet ran from 6 to 13 October 2026 and is closed. Hong Kong is the exception, with its own 2027/01 window from 29 December 2026 to 11 January 2027. If you applied for an international centre in October and are not given a place, the Federation's how-to-apply page says this UK window is your next chance: "The international application period opens before the UK application period, therefore if you are not allocated an international space you then have an opportunity to apply to take PACES in the UK."

The close is a morning deadline, and that catches people out. Here is 08:00 GMT on 10 and 17 November in the places most of our readers live. These conversions are TalkDrill's arithmetic, not the Federation's; UK clocks are on GMT from 25 October 2026, so no daylight saving applies on either date.

UK diets: windows, assessment periods and fees

This is the UK table from the Federation dates page, reproduced as printed (times in the brackets are the Federation's). The Federation says the details are "correct at the time of publication" and may change, and that exam dates "can fall on any day during the assessment period, including Saturdays and Sundays".

Three notes from the same page and from the centre locations page. First, UK PACES runs "at clinical centres across the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland); these vary from diet to diet", and the how-to-apply page says candidates should be prepared to travel anywhere within the UK. Second, each College's exam dates "may vary slightly from the advertised assessment window", so an exam may fall a little earlier or later than the dates listed. Third, resident doctors working in England can choose any of the three Colleges of Entry (London, Glasgow or Edinburgh) without affecting their eligibility for exam fee reimbursement under new Academy of Medical Royal Colleges guidelines; the Federation says it will publish how to claim once the details are available.

The next UK diet after 2027/01 is not on the page yet. Last cycle, the 2026/02 UK window ran from 23 to 30 March 2026. We will add the 2027/02 row the week the Federation publishes it, and not before.

International diets and fees

The international table on the same page, as printed, with the fees from the per-centre tables below it.

Two fee points that matter for budgeting. The international fee is roughly 1.8 times the UK fee for the same diet (GBP 1,358 against GBP 742; our arithmetic), so the UK window is worth checking if you can get a UK visa. But UK places go to UK trainees first, and travel and visa costs are yours, so in our judgement the home-region centre is still the realistic choice for most candidates in India, Pakistan, Egypt or the Gulf. The next international diet, 2027/02, is not announced. Last cycle, the 2026/02 international window ran from 17 to 24 February 2026.

International centres and exam dates for diet 2027/01

The Federation dates page gives each international centre its own table. These are the centres with 2027/01 exam dates, as printed on 21 October 2026, with the spaces per assessment period and the local rule from the centre locations page. The window for all of these except Hong Kong closed on 13 October 2026, so this table is for candidates who applied and are waiting, and for planning the next diet. Admission documents with your exact date, time and location arrive at least four weeks before the exam, per the dates page.

Three rows on the Federation page (New Delhi, Pondicherry and Islamabad) print the 2027/01 dates without a year; they fall inside the 2027/01 assessment period, so they are in 2027. Marked "Centre not running in this assessment period" for 2027/01: Bahrain (Manama), India (Bengaluru, Mumbai and Pune), Jamaica, Jordan (Amman), Kenya (Nairobi), Malaysia (Kuching and Kota Kinabalu, Johor Bahru, Penang), Malta, Myanmar (all three centres), Nepal (Kathmandu), Pakistan (Karachi), Sudan, and UAE (Abu Dhabi and Dubai).

Read the right-hand column before you plan. For a doctor working in Dubai, the two UAE centres running in 2027/01 are Ajman, where some spaces are reserved for local trainees, and Sharjah, where all are. Colombo accepts only local applicants. In India, New Delhi and Kolkata are open to any applicant, and Hyderabad is the open centre in the South; Chennai, Kochi, Pondicherry and Thiruvananthapuram keep some spaces for local trainees. The centre page also says the Federation tries to prioritise international candidates using "number of unsuccessful/successful applications and time since passing Part 1", without guaranteeing a space.

How applying works: priority, payment, admission documents

All of this is from the Federation's how to apply page, read on 21 October 2026.

1. Apply in your MyMRCP(UK) account during the window. Have your hospital work history for the past 12 months ready, including where you have taken PACES or attended a PACES course. Check your login works before the window opens.
2. Choose up to two locations. The page says the system still lets you pick four, "but we shall only consider the first two".
3. Timing inside the week does not matter. "There is no first come first served rule." The closing time does matter: late applications are not accepted.
4. International centres: wait for the decision. You hear within three weeks of the window closing. A successful application email carries a payment link, and the page says payment must be made within two weeks. The September 2026 regulations give a shorter deadline, 7 working days from the notification, so pay on the day you hear.
5. UK centres: who pays when. UK trainees pay when they apply. Non-UK trainees pay only after their application is accepted, and an unpaid application is rejected. If your international application was rejected, the page says to apply online for a UK place and that you will be emailed within one week of the UK window closing if you are successful.
6. UK priority. "UK PACES spaces are prioritised for UK trainees". The centre locations page adds that if UK trainees exceed the places, those expecting to apply for ST3 posts within the next year come first. If a College is oversubscribed, candidates may be moved to another College.
7. Admission documents. Your date, time and location arrive at least four weeks before the exam. You can ask for a preferred area and timeframe in the "Other" box under special arrangements; nothing is guaranteed.
8. Visa letters. Non-UK trainees applying to sit in the UK can request a visa support letter, which comes from their College of entry; the page says letters can be sent to successful candidates.

Two eligibility points sit underneath all of this. You must have passed MRCP(UK) Part 1 before you can apply for PACES, and the September 2026 regulations recommend completing the two-year foundation programme and entering internal medicine training, or an equivalent period of training, before attempting PACES. The how-to-apply page puts it as "at least two years' clinical experience working in hospitals" after your primary medical qualification.

Withdrawals, refunds, attempts and visas

From section 3 of the MRCP(UK) Regulations, version 2.2, September 2026.

Withdrawal requests go by email to the right office: MRCP(UK) for international PACES, or the relevant College for UK PACES, with your RCP code number, full name and date of birth.

When PACES results come out

Per the dates page, UK PACES results are published in your MyMRCP(UK) account "15 working days after the last day your centre runs", and international results "20-30 working days after the last day your centre runs". The clock starts from the centre's last day, not your own exam day, so a candidate examined on the first day of a five-day centre waits longer than one examined on the last. The regulations add two points. Results are confirmed at the post-cycle discussion on the day of the exam and cannot be reviewed. And results may arrive during or after the next application window, which is why provisional applications exist. For candidates sitting the current 2026/03 diet, whose assessments run into late November in the UK and December internationally, that overlap with the 10 to 17 November UK window is real: check whether your preferred centre accepts provisional applications before you rely on one.

The dates block and how this page is kept current

Every exam page on TalkDrill carries a dates block rendered from one file that we check against the official pages each week. For this hub the rows today are:

The PACES row is the UK window. International candidates should read it with the international table above, because their 2027/01 window has already closed. A row moves only when the Federation or the GMC changes its page; we never add a guessed date for 2027/02, and when it appears it will carry the day we verified it. The site-wide dates page holds every exam we track, and the official links page lists every source on this page with its check status.

What to do this week

If you are applying in the UK window (10 to 17 November)

1. Log in to MyMRCP(UK) now and confirm your details and Part 1 pass are showing. Fix any login problem before 10 November.
2. Write down your 12-month work history with hospital names and addresses, and any PACES courses and previous attempts.
3. If you are a non-UK trainee, check your visa route before you apply. The Federation does not refund visa-related withdrawals.
4. Apply on any day of the window. Set an alarm for 16 November as your personal last day.

If you applied internationally in October

1. Watch for the decision email; the how-to-apply page says it comes within three weeks of the 13 October close. Pay the day it arrives.
2. If you are not allocated a place, apply in the UK window on 10 to 17 November.
3. Count back eight weeks from your centre's dates in the table above and start the 8-week communication roadmap on that day. For Cairo, Jeddah or Qatar in late January, that is the first week of December 2026.

Whatever your diet

Four of the eight PACES encounters are about talking, and they carry the only marks for Skills C and F. Read the PACES communication and consultation page for the station table, the skills in plain words and three worked encounters, then practise one 10-minute encounter a day as a spoken conversation in role-play practice, with a hard stop at ten minutes.