Group and programme preferencing

Non-urgent advice: Saving your preferences

The Oriel preferencing page is set to time out after 59 minutes of inactivity. Do not have Oriel open on two browsers/tabs at the same time, as your preferences will not be saved. Do not attempt to rank preferences using a smartphone device, as Oriel has not been designed to work on these devices

There is no ‘submit’ button for preferences in Oriel. You must save your preferences. The system will not autosave your preferences. Make sure you remember to save your preferences if you leave your computer part way through preferencing.

Group and programme preferencing takes places in Oriel after applicants are allocated to a foundation school. Refer to the application timeline for the dates of the preferencing windows and the dates on which applicants are matched to a group and then to programme.

Your allocated foundation school will contact you directly with information about this process. You are only able to preference programmes in your allocated foundation school once the preferencing window has opened on Oriel.

You will be able to export/download the list of available programmes in your allocated foundation school from Oriel once the programme preferencing window opens. This export will be in an Excel compatible file. You should refer to local foundation school websites for details of trusts, health boards and other employing organisations in each region. 

The same Preference Informed Allocation algorithm and two-pass system which was used to allocate applicants to a foundation school is also used to match applicants to a group and then to programme.

The same computer-generated rank used for allocation to a foundation school will be used when allocating applicants at the group/programme match stage. Applicants will not receive a new rank for group or programme matching.  The same rank will be used at all stages.

Foundation schools with many programmes may choose to cluster programmes into groups (for example, themed by location). In this instance, applicants will be matched to programmes in two stages:

Matched to a group: applicants are required to preference groups in order of choice. Applicants are matched to a group based on their PIA rank and preferences.

Matched to a programme: once matched to groups, applicants will be invited to preference the programmes in that group in order of choice. Applicants are matched to a programme based on their PIA rank and preferences.

If the allocated foundation school does not use groups, applicants will be invited to preference all of the programmes in that Foundation School in order of choice without having to preference groups. Applicants are matched to a programme based on their PIA rank and preferences.

1) Select the “Preferences” tab from within your dashboard in Oriel. You will see your main FP application (and your FPP application if you also applied for FPP).

2) Select “Update preferences”. You will then be able to preference the groups or programmes in your order of choice using the drag and drop process.  

3) You must select the save button every time you wish to save your preferences and changes. The “save” button can be found in the top right hand corner of the screen.

4) You are advised to allow sufficient time to preference groups and programmes by the deadline. Late preferences cannot be submitted under any circumstances.

As of 2025, all foundation schools in England now use groups, in addition to the Scotland and Wales Foundation Schools. The Northern Ireland Foundation School does not use groups.

Some Foundation Schools in England only have three groups – the “Foundation Programme” group, the “Specialised Foundation Programme (SFP)” group and the “Placeholder” group. The SFP group only contains Specialised Foundation Programmes.  The Foundation Programme group contains all other programmes for that foundation school.  

Refer to the How to Apply on Oriel guide for information about how to link to another applicant. Also refer to the information on the Allocation page about how linking works with the PIA method.

The rank of the lower ranking applicant will be used to allocate both linked applicants to a foundation school (and in some cases to group as well if used by the foundation school).

Not all Foundation Schools allow linking for the match to group and applicants should consider local Foundation School policies prior to submission of their linked application. Applicants should contact individual Foundation Schools directly for further information.

All foundation schools will have a group in Oriel called “Placeholder”. The groups contain training programmes which are still being finalised.

At the point when group and programme preferencing and matching takes place on Oriel, these programmes won’t contain employer or rotation details.  The programmes within the group all have “PL” at the end of the programme reference number.

Applicants allocated to these groups will have their programmes finalised and their employer and rotations confirmed as soon as possible after the main programme match. We would like to emphasise that all eligible applicants will be offered a 2-year Foundation Programme.

Do I need to preference placeholder groups or programmes or is it ok to ignore them?

Applicants don’t need to preference the placeholder groups or programmes. Applicants should either:
1) ignore the placeholder groups or programmes, or
2) ensure that they are ranked at the bottom of their preference list.

This does not guarantee that an applicant will not be matched to one of these groups or programmes.
 
We would advise that applicants do not positively rank these groups/programmes any higher than at the bottom of their list because doing so will increase their chance of a match to one of these groups/programmes.