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1 NZ Dental Schools

New Zealand Dental Schools — Otago BDS Entry & Interview Guide

New Zealand has one dental school — the University of Otago (BDS). See HSFY entry requirements, the structured Zoom interview, the 2025 removal of UCAT-ANZ and domestic vs international places.

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Interview format
University of Otago — Dentistry (BDS) — The iconic University of Otago Registry

University of Otago — Dentistry (BDS)

Dunedin

The University of Otago BDS is a 5-year degree at New Zealand's only dental school, located at the Faculty of Dentistry in Dunedin. Year 1 is completed through Health Sciences First Year (HSFY) at Otago; Years 2–5 are at the Faculty of Dentistry. All shortlisted applicants attend a Zoom interview, and UCAT ANZ is no longer required (removed from the 2025 intake onwards).

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Campus photo credits

Campus photographs are used under free Creative Commons or public-domain licences and have been resized and cropped for display.

  • University of Otago — Dentistry (BDS): photograph by Bernard Spragg. NZ — CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
Entry guides: how to get into each dental school (1)

Grades, admissions test cut-offs, interview format and a realistic chances read for every school, one guide each.

Frequently asked questions

Quick answers about New Zealand dental school applications.

Just one. The University of Otago (Faculty of Dentistry, Dunedin) runs New Zealand’s only Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS). Entry is through Health Sciences First Year (HSFY), the same gateway used for Otago medicine.

See New Zealand Medical Schools

UCAT-ANZ thresholds, the HSFY and Auckland First Year gateways, MAPAS & RRAS pathways and MMI formats for both NZ medical schools.

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What each dentistry course is like

Teaching, the year-by-year structure, assessment and where you will train, one long-form guide per school (1), written from each university’s own pages and checked claim by claim. More are added as each one is checked.