French baccalaureate: UK university entry requirements

UK universities do not publish one offer for everybody. They publish an A-level offer (A*AA, AAA…) and a table that translates it into other diplomas. For the French baccalaureate, that translation is an overall average out of 20 plus, when the course requires a subject, a mark in the matching spécialité. Each university draws up its own table — and the same A*AA offer does not mean the same average everywhere.

This page gathers the published grids of sixteen universities, checked on their official pages on 30 September 2026, and explains how to use them. It concerns the bac général, taken in France or at a French lycée abroad. For the application itself, see our UCAS guide for international students.

How UK universities read the French baccalaureate

Three rules come back in almost every grid.

1. No UCAS points. UCAS states that its Tariff tables do not contain international qualifications, apart from the Irish Leaving Certificate. A “bac to UCAS points” calculator found online is not official, and universities do not use one.
2. An average for the grades, a spécialité mark for the subject. “A*AA including A in Mathematics” becomes, at Warwick, 16/20 overall and 16 in spécialité mathématiques.
3. The subject must be a spécialité — sometimes over two years. Durham, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Imperial, LSE, UCL and King’s College London ask for the required subject to have been studied as a spécialité in both Première and Terminale. King’s is explicit: a spécialité taken only in Year 12 (Première) “will not be considered”.

For maths, the option matters. Edinburgh and King’s do not accept mathématiques complémentaires where maths is required; LSE and King’s accept mathématiques expertes as the equivalent of Further Mathematics.

The grids, university by university

Averages are out of 20. “Subject mark” is the mark required in the spécialité when the A-level offer asks for that grade in a subject. The second table applies the grids to one economics or business course per university.

A dash means the university does not publish that value. General entry requirements on this page: next review 1 December 2026. Admissions-test requirements (TMUA and others) are monitored before each registration deadline. Country grids are mostly undated; UCL’s is labelled “2026 entry”. The course pages cited below are for 2027 entry.

Applied to one economics or business course

Where the course page gives no figure in French bac terms, the result is marked “our reading”: it combines the course offer with the university’s own France grid.

These are academic entry requirements, not admission probabilities. Meeting them does not guarantee an offer, and a course’s own requirements take priority over the general country guidance.

What the table tells you: the half-point that matters

The same A*AA offer asks for 15/20 at Birmingham, 15.75 at UCL and 16 at Warwick, LSE, Durham and Oxford. Around 16/20, half a point separates two very different lists.

Take a student predicted 15.5/20 overall and 16 in spécialité mathématiques, studied in Première and Terminale, applying for economics:

• Meets the published requirement: Birmingham (14 and 14), Manchester (15 and 15 in maths, if the English mark is at least 14) and, for business, Exeter (14) and Bath (15 with 15 in one spécialité).
• Course-level requirement not confirmed: Nottingham. Its 14/20 is a university-wide minimum and does not establish eligibility for Economics; ask for the French bac requirement of the course before counting it.
• Just below: UCL (15.75), then King’s College London, Warwick, LSE, Durham, St Andrews and Imperial’s Economics, Finance and Data Science (all at 16).
• Below, depending on the year: Edinburgh, whose recent range runs from 16 to 17.5.
• Well below: Cambridge (17 minimum).

That student can still apply to one or two universities in the “just below” group, but should not build a list of five from it. With 16.5 overall and 17 in maths, the student meets more of the listed academic thresholds, but remains below Cambridge’s published overall minimum; tests, English requirements and selection still apply. This is why we start every UK list from the student’s predicted marks, not from rankings.

Spécialités: choosing them with the UK in mind

The choice made at the end of Seconde weighs on UK applications two years later.

• Economics, finance, data science: keep spécialité mathématiques in Terminale, not mathématiques complémentaires. Several universities require it in Première and Terminale; Imperial asks for 17 in it for Economics, Finance and Data Science.
• Mathematics-heavy courses: add mathématiques expertes, which LSE and King’s treat as Further Mathematics — and several Cambridge colleges require Further Maths for economics in 2027.
• Humanities and law: fewer subject conditions, so the overall average carries the whole weight.

Our French article on spécialités and universities abroad covers this choice in more detail.

BFI and OIB

The Baccalauréat Français International (BFI), which replaced the OIB, is read favourably. At Edinburgh, Exeter, Manchester, King’s and St Andrews it lowers the required average by one point; at Oxford the drop is larger for A*AA (14 instead of 16); at Cambridge it changes nothing (17). Manchester notes that the new BFI exams are “still being considered” and that its requirements may change. LSE adds that the BFI’s bilingual English route, with English as first modern language, can exempt you from an English test.

French lycées abroad

A French baccalaureate taken at a French lycée abroad — in Casablanca, Rabat, Dubai or elsewhere — is the same diploma: the France grid applies, whatever your nationality. Two universities say so explicitly for Morocco:

• Exeter: students on the French baccalaureate are accepted for direct entry.
• Manchester: French schools in Morocco get direct entry, with 13+/20 as the university-wide threshold; the course grid still applies.

The same diploma requirements apply to a French bac earned abroad. Fee status and immigration requirements are assessed separately, from your nationality, residence and immigration circumstances — see the fee-status and TB-test sections of our UCAS guide. The Moroccan baccalaureate follows different rules: see Moroccan baccalaureate and UK universities.

Predicted grades from a French lycée

None of the sixteen France pages says how a French lycée should present predicted grades. Ask your school to provide predicted grades for the qualifications you have not yet completed, through the UCAS referee or adviser process. Keep your school reports ready in case a university asks for them; what universities request varies. Offers are then conditional on the final baccalaureate result.

What we observe in the applications we follow — our experience, not an official rule — is that the useful prediction is an expected overall average out of 20 plus an expected mark in each relevant spécialité. Two traps come back: a lycée that will not predict above the student’s current average, and a prediction given as a mention (“très bien”) rather than a number. Ask for figures: the grids above are in numbers.

French bac or IB for UK universities?

Both are accepted for direct entry at all sixteen universities. The IB expresses offers in points (38 points for economics at Warwick and King’s College London), which makes comparisons easier; the French bac is read through a table that can be strict at the top end. Moving to the IB after Seconde is rarely worth the disruption. Choosing the right spécialités, and keeping a strong average in Première, matters more.

If you would like us to read your school reports against these grids and build a realistic list of five, the first call is free and lasts 30 minutes.