Transferring into medicine in Australia
What each school publishes, and what works instead
Mostly you cannot. ANU, Wollongong, Notre Dame and Monash say transfers are not possible, Adelaide starts everyone in Year 1, and UNSW says transfers are rare and credit is seldom given. The realistic routes are finishing your degree and applying through graduate entry, reapplying as a tertiary applicant, or using a published pathway at your own university.
- Medical school transfers
- Rare or not accepted
- Credit for earlier study
- Rarely or never given
- Realistic routes
- Graduate entry or reapplying
- UNSW Lateral Entry, 2027
- Up to 10 offers
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Photo: JVPurvis · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Photo: Calistemon · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Photo: coastal.culture.vulture · CC BY-SA 3.0
Can you transfer into medicine or dentistry in Australia?
Usually not. Places are filled by fresh selection each year, and the schools that address transfers mostly rule them out. Starting a science degree does not put you in a queue for medicine.
The word transfer covers three different situations, and the answer differs for each.
From another degree at the same university
Only where a published pathway exists, such as UNSW Lateral Entry, the Curtin course switch or internal transfer at Flinders. Each has its own grades and timing.
From a degree at another university
This is not really a transfer. You apply again as a tertiary or graduate applicant and compete with everyone else. Curtin says students at other providers are unable to transfer.
From another medical or dental school
Rare. UNSW considers exceptional circumstances that began after you accepted your offer. ANU, Wollongong and Notre Dame do not take transfers.
What each school publishes about transfers
These are the statements we found on official pages in November 2026, mostly for 2027 entry. Silence is not permission: if a school is missing here, ask its admissions team.
| School | What it publishes |
|---|---|
| ANU | Requests for direct transfers will not be considered. Transfer applicants can apply for Year 1, with no course credit, and complete all four years. |
| Wollongong | Transfer from another medical program is not possible. Applicants with incomplete medical studies in Australia or overseas are not eligible. |
| Notre Dame | Transfer from another medical program is not possible, and applicants with incomplete medical studies are not eligible. Moves between its own campuses happen only in the most exceptional circumstances. |
| Monash | Direct Entry: you cannot transfer in, because applicants must not have commenced tertiary study. Graduate Entry: Monash does not accept course transfers. |
| UNSW | Australian medical students may seek transfer for exceptional circumstances that began after accepting an offer, and UNSW says this is rare. It takes no transfers from overseas medical schools, and rarely gives credit for another degree. |
| Curtin | Students at another provider are unable to transfer and must finish their qualification first. Curtin's own undergraduates can apply as course switchers. |
| Adelaide | Medicine and dentistry: all students begin in Year 1. You cannot apply for later years or for credit or recognition of prior learning. |
| Bond | Subject credits are not available for previous studies. |
| Joint Medical Program | UNE says its advanced standing policy does not apply, under the terms of the program. |
| Flinders | Applicants excluded from a medicine course elsewhere are not considered until the exclusion is lifted. Flinders students can apply to transfer internally into its Clinical Sciences and MD course. |
| Sydney | If you applied unsuccessfully and then commenced postgraduate medicine or dentistry elsewhere, you are not eligible for its MD or DMD. |
| Griffith and UQ | Their GEMSAS entries cover moves between teaching locations or regional pathways only, not entry from other programs. |
We found no transfer statement on the pages we could read for Deakin, Macquarie, Melbourne, UWA, Western Sydney, Tasmania, JCU, Charles Sturt or Charles Darwin.
From science or biomedicine: finish your degree and apply to graduate entry
For most students this is the realistic route. GEMSAS accepts a three-year bachelor degree in any discipline, completed or in its final year, and gives no preference to any field. A science degree earns no formal advantage, although it can help with assumed knowledge: Sydney assumes anatomy, physiology and molecular and cellular biology, and says a biomedical science degree is not required.
The time cost is often smaller than people expect. A first-year science student who finishes and enters a four-year MD has six years left. Moving to a five-year program such as Western Sydney's leaves five, and a six-year program such as UNSW's leaves six. The graduate route also leaves you with a degree if medicine does not happen.
Protect your GPA from the start
Many schools count your final three FTE years (full-time equivalent years), which in a three-year degree means all of it. UQ counts the whole key degree. Weightings differ, so check the schools you want.
Plan GAMSAT around your final year
A September sitting cannot be used for that year's intake, so March of your final year is the last sitting for applying that year.
Apply in your final year
GEMSAS offers to final-year students are conditional on finishing your degree. Sydney needs the degree complete by 1 January of the year you start.
Think before changing university
Sydney requires at least two FTE years of your bachelor degree at the awarding institution, so a late move could affect eligibility there.
Reapplying during your degree instead of waiting to graduate
Some undergraduate programs can assess your university results part-way through a degree. You start again in Year 1 and compete for a place, so this is a new application and not a transfer.
Can assess study in progress (2027 entry)
- UNSW: 0.75 FTE or more in one degree in the year you apply, GPA 5.5, or 4.8 rural.
- Western Sydney: one year or more, unfinished, GPA 6.2, or 5.9 for Greater Western Sydney.
- Joint Medical Program: one full-time year in a single program, close to a credit average.
- Charles Darwin: six months of full-time graded study, GPA 5.0.
- JCU: non-school leaver rules, with GPA 5.75 for results to be assessed.
- Bond: from 1.5 FTE years, your GPA is used.
Closed once you start tertiary study (2027 entry)
- Monash Direct Entry.
- Griffith's Bachelor of Medical Science.
- UWA Assured Pathways.
- Flinders Clinical Sciences and MD, except by internal transfer.
- Curtin, if you are studying at another provider.
- Adelaide medicine, except its pathway for its own students.
Internal and articulated pathways into medicine
These are the closest thing Australia has to a transfer. Almost all require you to be in that university's feeder degree, and several only open at the end of Year 12. Rules are for 2027 entry unless the row says otherwise.
Open to students already at university
| University | Feeder route | Published conditions |
|---|---|---|
| UNSW | Lateral Entry from second-year Medical Science (3991) | About 30 interview places and up to 10 offers. Assessed on WAM (weighted average mark), UCAT-ANZ at the 50th percentile or above, and interview. |
| Monash | Nominated Monash degrees, or Federation University's partnership Biomedical Science degree | WAM of 70 or more, with interview. At least 70% of about 72 domestic places go to Monash Biomedical Science graduates. Two assessments at most. |
| ANU | ANU undergraduate pathway program | About 40 places reserved. |
| Melbourne | Guaranteed Entry Pathway for its undergraduates | Chancellor's Scholars (ATAR 99.90 or above), or full-fee entry (ATAR 99.00 or above, final WAM of 75), plus a satisfactory MMI. No GAMSAT. |
| Notre Dame | Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences | Priority Entry reserves places for graduates. The number is not stated. |
| Macquarie | Bachelor of Clinical Science | Up to 30 interview places reserved for graduates and final-year students. All MD places are full fee. |
| Flinders | Flinders degrees | Up to 75% of Bedford Park places normally go to Flinders graduates, and up to 30% of those to Medical Science, Paramedicine or Public Health graduates. |
| Curtin | Any Curtin undergraduate degree, if it is your only tertiary record | At least 200 credits at a course weighted average of 80, with 200 credits still to complete. UCAT-ANZ and Casper apply. |
| Adelaide | Adelaide University degrees | At least 10 places. One to two years of study, solely at Adelaide or its antecedents, at GPA 5.0. |
| Bond | Bond Biomedical Science (Pre-Health Professional), Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy, and Nutrition and Dietetics | Year 2 entry for graduates at GPA 3.00 out of 4. Places are limited. |
| Tasmania | UTAS Bachelor of Biomedicine | A quota within graduate entry. GAMSAT is required. |
| Joint Medical Program | Newcastle Bachelor of Biomedical Science | Graduates of the previous two years, at GPA 4.3, with UCAT-ANZ at or above the lower rural cut-off. Its policy gives a different academic measure, so confirm before relying on this. |
| Charles Darwin | Bachelor of Clinical Sciences into the NT Medical Program | 12 places a year, for school leavers or applicants with up to one year of higher education. Pass every unit at GPA 5.00 in two years. Entry carries a two-year NT work commitment. |
Entered from Year 12
| University | Feeder route | Published conditions |
|---|---|---|
| UQ, with CQUniversity and UniSQ | Provisional entry and regional pathways | Year 12 at first attempt only. UQ provisional students must finish their first degree in minimum time at GPA 5.0. |
| Griffith and UniSC | Bachelor of Medical Science | Griffith's route is for Year 12 students or those who finished in the last year, and needs a GPA of 5.50. 80 MD places are listed across Griffith and UniSC. |
| UWA | Assured Pathway through the Bachelor of Biomedicine (Specialised) | School leavers only, with academic minimums to keep the place. |
Can you transfer into dentistry?
Dentistry works the same way: you apply again rather than move across. Undergraduate programs offer a few more ways in for students with some university study.
- La Trobe: after one year of Biomedical Science or Biomedicine, you can apply competitively through VTAC. Its undated FAQ says no minimum WAM is published.
- Adelaide: a higher education pathway needs at least six months of full-time study at GPA 5.0, and the Year 12 pathway allows no more than two years. All students start in Year 1.
- JCU: non-school leavers need tertiary study, with a GPA of 5.75 for results to be assessed.
- Graduate entry: Sydney and UWA (DMD), Melbourne (DDS) and UQ (DMD, listed start January 2028).
- UWA also has an Assured Pathway for school leavers, through its Bachelor of Biomedicine (Specialised).
What leaving a degree costs you
| Academic credit | Do not count on any. ANU and Adelaide rule it out, Bond offers none and UNSW rarely gives it. |
|---|---|
| Your HELP debt | It stays with you. HECS-HELP borrowed from 1 January 2020 counts towards your HELP limit, which is A$193,259 for medicine and dentistry in 2027. |
| Your CSP entitlement | Study taken in a Commonwealth supported place reduces your Student Learning Entitlement, which starts at seven full-time years. Check your balance on myHELPbalance. |
| Leaving early | Monash says applicants who withdrew before the first census date, with no fees incurred, stay eligible for Direct Entry. Other schools do not say this on the pages we read. |
How to decide your next step
Name your situation
Are you at the same university, at another university or at another medical school? The routes differ for each.
List what is still open
Use the tables above to mark each school as graduate entry, tertiary applicant, internal pathway or closed.
Compare the time left
Count the remaining years on each route, and remember that a place is not guaranteed on any of them.
Ask in writing
Where a school says nothing, email its admissions team before you withdraw from anything, and keep the reply.
Transferring into medicine: your questions answered
Where this guide's facts come from
Checked against these sources on 7 November 2026. Rules change between cycles, so confirm anything that decides your application on the official page for your entry year.
Find the route that is open to you
Check which programs you can apply to from where you are now, and see the services that can help.