For 2027 entry at 诺丁汉大学（University of Nottingham）, a Chinese applicant's academic score is turned into a percentage of the maximum achievable score in their home province, and that percentage is then checked against the tier their degree-awarding institution falls into. The published tiers run from 0.68 up to 0.82. If your Gaokao result does not clear the bar for your course, the entry route changes.
How Gaokao scores are read
Nottingham now accepts Gaokao (NCCE) for entry to Year 1 of undergraduate study. The published requirement is expressed as a percentage of the total score achievable in the candidate's province of origin — not a fixed national number. Province totals differ, so the same raw Gaokao score can convert to different percentages depending on where you sat it.
Published course-level requirements range from 70% to 82% of the province's achievable total. The English component of the Gaokao also forms part of the assessment; the published material on this point is truncated, so check the full wording on the university's China entry requirements page before you calculate anything.
Where the tier classification changes your number
Nottingham publishes a tier classification for Chinese institutions, and each tier carries a different required average. These are the university's own tier words, kept as published:
| Institution tier (as published) | High 2:1 courses | 2:1 courses | 2:2 courses |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 一类院校 | 0.75 | 0.72 | 0.68 |
| Tier 2 二类院校 | 0.775 | 0.75 | 0.73 |
| Tier 3 三类院校（所有不属于 Tier 1、Tier 2 的院校） | 0.82 | 0.8 | 0.75 |
Read the three columns as different undergraduate course levels rather than a single number. The lowest figure anywhere in the table is 0.68; the highest is 0.82. If your course sits in a higher band — typically the more selective subject areas — your required average rises accordingly, and the university does not publish a full course-by-course table in the entry requirements summary itself, so you need the individual course page.
Check your own tier position
The university publishes a long roster of named Chinese institutions, each assigned to a tier, together with accepted Chinese, English and alternative name forms. That roster is long and the entry requirements material is reproduced in a condensed form here, so treat the page on nottingham.ac.uk as the authoritative version rather than any summary you find elsewhere.
Practically, that means:
- Find your university in the published roster.
- Note the tier it is assigned to.
- Convert your Gaokao total into a percentage of your province's achievable maximum.
- Compare that figure against the required average for your course level.
- Check the individual course page, because the band your course requires may be higher than the general range.
Which study modes this covers
The Gaokao route above is for entering Year 1 of an undergraduate degree. It is a separate route from the postgraduate qualifications described in the same entry requirements material, which include HND/SQA AD with final year or top-up years studied in the UK, and three years of Chinese junior college (Dazhuan) followed by one or two final or top-up years leading to a bachelor's degree.
The entry requirements do not state that this Gaokao score route is open for every study mode at every level. If you are applying to a mode or a level outside the Year 1 undergraduate route, verify on the course page which qualification the admissions team will assess and in what form.
What the published material does not settle
Two things worth knowing before you spend time on calculations.
First, the English requirement is described as involving the English component of the Gaokao, but the published extract stops mid-sentence. No separate published minimum for that component appears in the material available here. Do not assume a figure — check the full page.
Second, the published note is that Gaokao requirements vary by course across the stated range. That is the university's own framing of its own requirement, and it means the range alone will not tell you whether you qualify for the course you want.
None of this is a prediction of an outcome. These are the published thresholds; whether an application succeeds is a separate matter.