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Australian Medical school comparison

Flinders vs UQ

Flinders and UQ are both Australian medical schools, but the path to an offer at each is meaningfully different. Flinders is in South Australia while UQ is in Queensland. State of origin matters here: several schools rank local applicants ahead of interstate ones. Both select on GAMSAT, UCAT-ANZ and MCAT, so a single sitting can support both applications.

The interview formats diverge — Panel vs MMI — and the prep approaches for the two are fundamentally different.

Side-by-side comparison

Flinders

Bedford Park

Quick comparison

Location
Bedford Park, Australia
Entry pathway
Dual (UG + Grad)
Admission tests
GAMSAT + UCAT-ANZ + MCAT
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 in each section (a hurdle, not a competitive score). Flinders publishes the realised cut-offs on the MD course page: for 2027 entry the overall GAMSAT score cut-offs to be INVITED TO INTERVIEW were Rural Bedford Park 61, Humanitarian Visa Holders 60, Flinders Graduate 64, Flinders Graduate Reserved 64, and Non-Flinders Graduates/Non-Rural/Non-Humanitarian 76. SARM and NTMP cut-offs are not published because selection there is also priority-based. These are interview cut-offs, not offer cut-offs; Flinders notes they are 'based on the main round of interview offers' and will be updated if further interview offers are made, and that they 'are dependent upon the profile of the applicant pool and places available for each sub-quota, and therefore vary every year'. The overall GAMSAT score is calculated as ((1 x Section I) + (1 x Section II) + (2 x Section III)) / 4.
UCAT-ANZ
-
ATAR
-
Interview format
Semi-structured panel interview, normally approximately 45-50 minutes (NOT MMI); must be passed as a hurdle
Post-interview chance
Not published — Flinders does not release an interview-to-offer conversion rate. What is published is that the interview is a pass/fail hurdle (fail it and the application ends there, whatever the academic profile) and that, once passed, the interview score carries an equally weighted third of the final selection rank alongside wGPA and overall GAMSAT.
Decision date
Late October to mid-February (2027 entry: outcomes notified from late October 2026, with offers possible right up to course commencement in mid-February 2027; waitlisted applicants also notified)

UQ

St Lucia

Quick comparison

Location
St Lucia, Australia
Entry pathway
Dual (UG + Grad)
Admission tests
GAMSAT + UCAT-ANZ + MCAT
GAMSAT
Minimum 50 in each of Sections I, II, III (any section below 50 = ineligible). Interview shortlist: 50% unweighted GAMSAT (mean of 3 sections) + 50% GPA, GPA as tiebreaker. Final offer: UQ does not publish a weighting. Interviewed applicants are ranked by tier and merit order within each pathway, with CQ-WB RMP and DD-SW MP offers determined first; where final scores tie, the MMI score is the tiebreaker; non-bonded (CSP) places are offered before bonded (BMP).
UCAT-ANZ
Required for Provisional Entry (school-leaver) and for the new 6-year BMedSc/MD direct-entry dual; must be sat in the year you apply. Latest published figures are for the 2026 intake: the lowest UCAT ANZ score invited to interview was 2290/2700 for applicants not eligible for the Rural Background Sub-Quota and 1960/2700 for those who were. No 2027-entry threshold has been published, and UQ has said it is reviewing how the recent UCAT ANZ format change affects interview selection. Shortlisting is on the UCAT ANZ aggregate, subject to a minimum 50% of domestic MMI invitees being Queensland Year 12 students. The final offer rank is a combined score of ATAR, MMI total and UCAT ANZ aggregate — UQ and QTAC publish no weightings.
ATAR
Adjusted ATAR 95 (or equivalent) is the published MINIMUM for both school-leaver routes — provisional entry (QTAC 721302 / 721402) and the 6-year BMedSc/MD dual (QTAC 721502) — and meeting it guarantees nothing. Actual Semester 1 2026 provisional-entry offer profile (latest published cycle), non-bonded: highest 99.95, median 99.65, lowest 95.00 excluding adjustments (99.95 / 99.95 / 98.10 including adjustments). Bonded: highest 99.95, median 99.20, lowest 93.25 excluding adjustments (99.95 / 99.95 / 97.25 including adjustments).
Interview format
Multi-Mini Interview (8 stations)
Post-interview chance
Not published. Neither UQ, GEMSAS nor QTAC publishes the number of MMI invitations issued or an interview-to-offer conversion rate for the UQ MD. Treat any quoted percentage as an unsourced estimate.
Decision date
Graduate (GEMSAS): November 2026, with a small number in December and January. Graduate direct/MCAT: emailed w/b 3 August 2026 (Round 1) or w/b 5 October 2026 (Round 2). Provisional entry: UQ emails offers mid-December 2026, ahead of the QTAC offer round on 14 January 2027 (which also covers the 6-year BMedSc/MD dual).

Flinders vs UQ - in detail

Admission tests compared

UCAT-ANZ cut-offs. Flinders — no published cut-off. UQ — Required for Provisional Entry (school-leaver) and for the new 6-year BMedSc/MD direct-entry dual; must be sat in the year you apply. Latest published figures are for the 2026 intake: the lowest UCAT…

GAMSAT cut-offs. Flinders — Minimum 50 in each section (a hurdle, not a competitive score). Flinders publishes the realised cut-offs on the MD course page: for 2027 entry the overall GAMSAT score cut-offs to be INVITED TO… UQ — Minimum 50 in each of Sections I, II, III (any section below 50 = ineligible).

Interview shortlist: 50% unweighted GAMSAT (mean of 3 sections) + 50% GPA, GPA as tiebreaker. Final offer: UQ does not…

Timing shapes the choice as much as the score. GAMSAT is graduate-only and sits in March and September; UCAT-ANZ is mostly undergraduate and sits in July. A few schools run their own selection model with no national test at all.

ATAR and academic profile

Flinders requires Graduate entry (4-year MD): completed or final-year Bachelor degree (or One-year Honours) with a minimum Flinders-equivalent non-weighted GPA of 5.00; valid GAMSAT with a minimum of 50 in EACH section (normally valid for four consecutive intakes; international applicants may use GAMSAT or MCAT, normally 124 per section / 496 overall); a semi-structured panel interview of approximately 45-50 minutes that must be passed.

No prerequisite subjects and no 10-year rule. SARM (rural South Australia) and NTMP (Northern Territory) pathways available, plus Rural, Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and Humanitarian Visa sub-quotas; Indigenous Entry Stream (IES) for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander graduates without a valid GAMSAT (applications open early November and close end of February).

Direct entry (6-year Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / Doctor of Medicine): Year 12 with a minimum ATAR of 95.00 plus UCAT ANZ, applied for through SATAC, no interview, and applicants must not have a record of study at higher education level; a GPA of 5.0 is required to progress into the MD component.

UQ requires Graduate entry: bachelor (key degree) completed in the last 10 years with minimum GPA 5.0/7.0; GAMSAT minimum 50 in EACH section (no overall threshold is published), or MCAT 504, taken within 4 years before you commence; 8-station online MMI.

UQ also assumes — but does not require as a prerequisite — prior tertiary study in cell and tissue biology and systems physiology (UQ BIOM2011 and BIOM2012, or equivalent). Provisional entry instead needs an adjusted ATAR 95, Queensland Year 12 English, a UCAT ANZ score from the year you apply, and the MMI.

ATAR. Flinders — no published cut-off. UQ — Adjusted ATAR 95 (or equivalent) is the published MINIMUM for both school-leaver routes — provisional entry (QTAC 721302 / 721402) and the 6-year BMedSc/MD dual (QTAC 721502) — and meeting it…

Graduate-entry GPA. Flinders — Minimum Flinders-equivalent non-weighted GPA of 5.00 from the most recent Bachelor degree to be ELIGIBLE to apply (2027 Domestic Application Guide). Flinders does not publish the GPA profile of… UQ — Minimum 5.0/7.0 in key degree. Currency rule: degrees > 10 years before commencement require ≥ 0.50 FTE subsequent coursework at GPA ≥ 5.0.

Read every ATAR figure as a selection rank, not a raw score. Educational access bonuses, rural-origin uplift and Indigenous pathways all adjust it, so the published number is rarely the one that decides your application.

Interview formats

Flinders uses Panel (Semi-structured panel interview, normally approximately 45-50 minutes (NOT MMI); must be passed as a hurdle); UQ uses MMI (Multi-Mini Interview (8 stations)). These two formats reward different skills — Panel emphasises narrative coherence and the ability to develop a thread under follow-up questioning, while MMI rewards breadth and quick recovery.

If your strengths lie in conversational depth, Flinders may suit you more. If you prefer discrete capsule answers under time pressure, UQ is the better fit.

Interview windows: Flinders interviews in 2027 entry: SA interviews 21 September - 2 October 2026; NT interviews 21-24 September 2026. Flinders notes the interview timeline may change for the 2026-2027 admission cycle.; UQ in Graduate (GEMSAS): mid-September 2026 for 2027 entry. Graduate direct/MCAT: w/b 13 July 2026 (Round 1) or w/b 14 September 2026 (Round 2).

Provisional entry and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander provisional pathway: mid-late November 2026..

Curriculum and teaching style

Flinders runs a Case-based curriculum; UQ runs a Integrated curriculum. The teaching philosophies are different — Flinders leans on small-group case-based learning from year 1, while UQ uses a more traditional lecture-led structure.

Specifics: 4-year graduate MD organised around domains of medical practice — health and illness, the doctor-patient relationship, health and society, professiona 4-year graduate MD. Years 1-2 foundations and clinical skills at the Herston Health Sciences precinct. Years 3-4 clinical placements distributed acros

Intake size: Flinders — Flinders does not publish a single total MD intake figure; the intake is assembled from Bedford Park (Flinders Graduates max 75%, Non-Flinders…; UQ — 2027 graduate intake: 107 CSP + 43 BMP + up to 190 international = up to 340 across the GEMSAS graduate route….

A larger cohort means more peer breadth; a smaller cohort means more tutor contact.

Post-interview offer rate

Flinders: Not published — Flinders does not release an interview-to-offer conversion rate. What is published is that the interview is a pass/fail hurdle (fail it and the application ends there, whatever the academic profile) and that, once passed, the interview score carries an equally weighted third of the final selection rank alongside wGPA and overall GAMSAT. UQ: Not published.

Neither UQ, GEMSAS nor QTAC publishes the number of MMI invitations issued or an interview-to-offer conversion rate for the UQ MD. Treat any quoted percentage as an unsourced estimate.

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

Flinders: Flinders runs one of Australia's first graduate-entry medical program in Australia (the medical school opened in 1974 with an intake of 64; four-year graduate entry followed in 1996) with a case-based, domain-organised curriculum, a semi-structured panel interview of approximately 45-50 minutes (not MMI), and a flagship Northern Territory Medical Program (NTMP).

The NT Government funds NTMP tuition under the NT Bonded Medical Scheme in exchange for a return-of-service commitment to work in the Northern Territory for at least two years after graduation; Flinders states that this return of service cannot be transferred to South Australia.

NTMP cumulative output 251 graduates since 2011 (10% Indigenous); Flinders reports 88% of its NT medical graduates are Territorians and more than half go on to practise in the NT (February 2026).

UQ: UQ runs Australia's largest 4-year graduate-entry MD (~470 places), anchored at the St Lucia MD Learning Hub and the Greater Brisbane Clinical School's eight clinical units — Children's Health Queensland, General Practice, Greenslopes, Ipswich, Mater, Northside, PA-Southside and Royal Brisbane.

The UQ-Ochsner Clinical School runs Years 1-2 in Brisbane and Years 3-4 in New Orleans, but it is open only to US citizens and permanent residents and selects on the MCAT (minimum 504).

Pre-interview ranking for graduate entry is a flat 50:50 of unweighted average GAMSAT and assessed GPA; after the MMI, applicants are ranked in merit order by pathway and tier, with the MMI score as the tiebreaker.

Which is right for you?

Check your state of origin before you apply — Flinders draws heavily on South Australia applicants and UQ on Queensland, and an interstate application often faces a materially higher bar.

Your preference list should ultimately weight: which admission test you can realistically score well in, whether your state of origin gives you a bonus at either school, and where you'd actually want to live for four to six years.

Common questions

Flinders uses GAMSAT, UCAT-ANZ and MCAT. UQ uses GAMSAT, UCAT-ANZ and MCAT. Both schools share the same test stack — your single sitting can support both applications. GAMSAT is graduate-only and sat in March/September; UCAT-ANZ is undergraduate-leaning and sat in July; some schools (notably Bond and JCU) run their own selection model with no national test.

School data reviewed by the NextGen MedPrep editorial team — last reviewed .