Skip to main content
Back to Australian Dental School Compare
Australian Dental school comparison

Griffith Dental vs UWA Dental

Griffith Dental and UWA Dental are both UK dental schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Both sit in England, so location and clinical-placement breadth are similar — the differentiation comes from selection methodology, interview style and curriculum philosophy. Their A-Level requirements (BDHS vs Bachelor) place them in slightly different academic-strictness tiers.

Side-by-side comparison

Griffith Dental

Gold Coast

Quick comparison

Location
Gold Coast, Australia
Entry pathway
Undergraduate
Admission tests
UCAT-ANZ
GAMSAT
-
UCAT-ANZ
No discrete numerical cut-off published by Griffith. 2022 cycle reported lowest threshold ~78th percentile; 2023+ realistic competitive range 90th+ percentile.
ATAR
BDHS school-leaver ATAR competitive floor 99.85 (GradReady cross-reference). 99+ effective.
Interview format
GUDAP — Griffith University Dental Admissions Process (multi-station scenario interview, online via SAMMI)
Post-interview chance
Not publicly disclosed.
Decision date
January

UWA Dental

Crawley

Quick comparison

Location
Crawley, Australia
Entry pathway
Graduate
Admission tests
GAMSAT
GAMSAT
Graduate DMD: minimum 50 overall (no section below 50). Interview short-listing: GAMSAT and GPA equally weighted (50:50). 2022 commencement median GAMSAT 68 — the only publicly disclosed cohort-level success figure for UWA DMD.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
Multi-Mini Interview (~8 stations)
Post-interview chance
~33% interview-to-offer.
Decision date
December-January

Griffith Dental vs UWA Dental - in detail

A-Level and academic profile

Griffith Dental requires BDHS school-leaver ATAR competitive floor 99.85 + UCAT-ANZ + GUDAP interview; English + one of Biology / Chemistry / Physics / Maths Methods (Units 3/4, C) prerequisites. BDHS is the entry point; DMD is the postgraduate continuation. No direct-entry BDS.. UWA Dental requires Bachelor degree with minimum GPA 5.5/7.0; GAMSAT overall 50+ with section minima 50+; MMI; rural and Aboriginal Health pathways available.. Both demand the same A-Level grade band, so academic prediction is unlikely to differentiate your application between them — provided you meet the required subject combination at each.

Interview formats

Both Griffith Dental and UWA Dental use MMI interviews, so the underlying prep approach is the same — practise ethics frameworks, NHS hot-topic answers and (for MMI) structured station responses against a timer. That said, the specifics differ slightly: Griffith Dental runs gudap — griffith university dental admissions process (multi-station scenario interview, online via sammi); UWA Dental runs multi-mini interview (~8 stations). Mock practice tailored to each school's exact format is the highest-leverage prep. Interview windows: Griffith Dental interviews in 20-26 November (2025 cycle); UWA Dental in October-November.

Curriculum and teaching style

Both schools deliver a Integrated-style curriculum, so day-to-day study habits will feel similar across years 1-3. Specifics: Integrated pathway: 3-year Bachelor of Dental Health Science (BDHS) → 2-year graduate Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD). Direct-entry BDS not curr 4-year graduate Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD). Year 1 foundations and pre-clinical simulation at Crawley. Years 2-4 clinical placements at the Oral Intake size: Griffith Dental — 2025 BDHS intake 69 admitted (QTAC). BDHS → DMD integrated pathway (3+2 years).; UWA Dental — ~36 places annually across all DMD quotas (Direct + Graduate combined; Fraser's UWA 2027). Domestic vs international split not publicly disclosed.. A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

Griffith Dental: Not publicly disclosed.. UWA Dental: ~33% interview-to-offer.. Post-interview odds give you the clearest signal of how competitive each school is at the final stage — a school with a 60% post-interview success rate is structurally easier to convert than one at 25%, even if the interview thresholds look identical on paper.

What makes each distinctive

Griffith Dental: Griffith offers a single integrated dental pathway: 3-year Bachelor of Dental Health Science (BDHS) → 2-year graduate Doctor of Medicine in Dentistry (DMD). Direct-entry BDS not currently offered (any historical BDS-direct route is not in current QTAC course offerings). Co-located with Gold Coast University Hospital and the Griffith Health Centre 117-chair dental clinic. ATAR floor 99.85 (school-leaver competitive) — the second-most ATAR-competitive dental program in Australia. UWA Dental: UWA Dental runs a 4-year graduate Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) — Western Australia's only graduate-entry dental program. Co-located with the Oral Health Centre of WA at the Crawley campus. Pre-interview ranking weights GAMSAT and GPA; the MMI carries substantial weight in the final composite. Strong rural and Aboriginal Health pathways.

Which is right for you?

Both schools sit in the same England foundation-programme catchment, so post-graduation training paths overlap heavily. Your firm/insurance choice should ultimately weight: where your UCAT and predicted grades sit relative to each school's threshold, which interview format you can prepare for most credibly, and where you'd actually want to live for five years.

Common questions