The 2027 season now has published dates, and there are two sets of them. UKBC's own page gives a competition window of 15th to 22nd January and says registration will open on 1st October. The China-region listing gives a single fixed date and an earlier deadline. Neither is wrong. They describe different entry routes, and only one of them governs your sitting.
What UKBC has published for the 2027 season
Start with the organiser, because everything else is downstream of it. The UKBC page for the British Biology Olympiad states the competition runs “15th to 22nd January” and that “Registration will open on 1st October”. That is a window, not a date — eight days inside which a registered school arranges its own sitting.
Three further lines on the same page shape what that window means in practice:
- “The competition consists of two, 45-minute multiple choice papers” — two papers, not one.
- “The papers can be taken together or on separate occasions.” — so a school may legitimately split them across two days inside the window.
- “Both papers are entirely online, so all students must have access to an internet-connected device, e.g. computer, laptop, tablet.” — taken on-site at the registered school or college, with teachers responsible for invigilating “under normal examination conditions, in person”.
Put those together and the UK-route picture is a school-scheduled event: your teacher picks when, inside 15–22 January, and picks whether you sit both papers back to back or on two separate occasions. You are not choosing your exam date. Somebody in your biology department is.
For continuity, our earlier guide to the China-region sitting and how international entry works recorded the previous season's UK window as 19–28 January. The window is set per season and it moved. That is the first practical lesson of this article: do not carry last year's dates forward, and do not let a teacher do it either.
What the regional listings say — and why they are not corrections
Alongside UKBC's own page, the regional partner pages publish their own sittings. Read carefully, they describe different territories:
| Detail | UKBC official page | China-region listing | Wider-Asia listing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Exam date | Window: 15th to 22nd January | Jan. 16, 2027 (Sat.) 10:00–11:30 | Jan. 17, 2027 (Sun.), 90 mins |
| Registration | Opens 1st October | Deadline Jan. 5, 2027 | Until two weeks before the exam date |
| Delivery | Both papers entirely online, on-site at the registered school | Listed as paper-based at a partnering school | Listed as online |
| Structure | Two 45-minute multiple-choice papers | One 90-minute individual written test, no experiment | 90 mins, no experiment |
| Fee | UK schools free; schools outside the UK £30 per school | Not stated on the page | Not stated on the page |
| Awards | Gold, Silver, Bronze, Highly Commended, Commended, Participation | Gold, Silver, Bronze, Highly Commended, Commended | Same five tiers listed |
The temptation is to decide which column is “right”. Resist it. A regional partner running a sitting in its own territory can legitimately fix a single date inside or around the organiser's window, set an earlier internal deadline so it can collate entries, and describe the same 90 minutes of assessment either as two 45-minute papers or as one 90-minute test. Those are administrative descriptions of one competition, written by two different offices for two different audiences.
What you must not do is mix and match — turning up on the day the other column lists, or working to the deadline that belongs to a route your school did not use. That is the failure mode this article exists to prevent.
Which calendar governs you: the route your school entered by
The governing rule is simple and it has nothing to do with where you live. Your dates are the dates of the route your school registered through. There are two:
- Direct with UKBC. A recognised international school registers itself on the UKBC portal from 1 October and runs its own sitting inside 15–22 January. On this route, the £30-per-school fee for schools outside the UK and the online two-paper format are the operative facts.
- Through a regional partner. The school enters via the regional programme, and the partner's fixed date, earlier deadline, delivery method and fee basis apply instead.
One line on the China-region listing deserves separate attention because it catches a specific group of our readers: it states that students with British school enrolment cannot participate in China. If you are enrolled at a school in Britain — a boarding school, for instance — and you were planning to sit the paper while home in January, that plan may not be available on the regional route. Confirm it directly rather than assuming, because the consequence is missing the season entirely.
The fee, and the people who are not allowed to register you
On the direct route the published fee is blunt: “UK schools – Free” and “Schools outside of the UK – £30 per school.” Per school, not per candidate. That is why an entry request is far more likely to succeed as a group proposal than as a solo one — the cost and the administrative work are fixed, whoever they cover. Schools entering through a regional partner may be charged on a different basis, which the regional pages do not publish, so ask.
Equally important is the list of who cannot put you into the competition. UKBC states that registration is open to state-funded and independent schools, further education colleges, and international schools recognised by their national education authority — and explicitly not to private tutoring companies, online-only tuition providers, or individuals acting independently of a school. UKBC also states that all contact between the organisation and students should go through teachers.
Read that as consumer protection. If any organisation offers to enter you for the BBO as an individual, that offer does not match what the organiser says it permits. Your route runs through your school's biology department, and if your school is not yet registered, the thing to produce is not a payment but a persuasive request in early October.
What to do in the weeks before 1 October
Registration opening is the only date in this whole calendar that you can act on right now. Everything else is somebody else's decision. Three moves, in order:
- Establish the route before you ask about the date. One question to your biology teacher — “did we enter the BBO directly with UKBC or through a regional programme?” — resolves which column of the table above applies to you all season. If the school has never entered, the answer is that the route is still open and someone has to choose it.
- Bring the fixed costs with you. A teacher deciding in October is weighing effort, not enthusiasm. Naming the opening date, the per-school fee, the fact that the sitting is invigilated in person at school, and the fact that the papers may be split across two occasions turns a vague request into a schedulable task.
- Do not wait for the date to start the biology. The window is in January either way, which means the useful preparation weeks are October to December regardless of which calendar governs you. Our syllabus-and-study-plan guide sets out the seven content areas and the order to build them in; the calendar question above changes your logistics, not your revision.
One further planning note for anyone thinking past January. Because the BBO sits in mid-January and shares a large majority of its content with the USABO later in the season, the sensible frame is a single preparation cycle serving both, which we set out in the BBO-then-USABO plan. Fixing your January date early is what makes that sequence plannable — a date you only learn in December compresses everything downstream of it.
The one-line version
UKBC has published 1 October for registration and 15–22 January for the 2027 competition; the regional listings publish their own fixed dates and earlier deadlines for their own territories. Find out which route your school uses, write that route's two dates somewhere you will see them, and ignore the other column entirely. If your school has not entered before, the decision window opens on 1 October and the person who has to be convinced is a teacher, not an organiser.
When does BBO registration open for the 2027 season?
UKBC's page states registration will open on 1st October. Only a school or college can register students — not individuals or tutoring companies.
Is the BBO one date or a window?
UKBC lists a window of 15th to 22nd January, inside which the registered school arranges its own sitting. Regional listings give fixed dates instead.
Why do the China-region and UKBC dates differ?
They describe different entry routes for different territories, not a correction. Your dates are those of the route your school registered through.
What does the BBO cost a school outside the UK?
UKBC lists £30 per school, not per candidate. Entry through a regional partner may be charged differently — confirm on the official pages.
This is an independent guide operated by Hanlin Education for China-based international-school students. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by UKBC or the Royal Society of Biology; official administration of the British Biology Olympiad rests with the organiser. Dates, fees, eligibility and format change between seasons — confirm current details on the UKBC official pages and with your own school or exam centre before acting. Errors reported to us are corrected within 7 working days.