Flinders medicine is Flinders University's Doctor of Medicine (MD), taught in metropolitan Adelaide, rural South Australia, and the Northern Territory. This page explains the Flinders MD, the entry requirements for graduates and school leavers, the Northern Territory Medical Program, and how Flinders compares with medicine at Adelaide University. The national list of schools is the Australian medical schools directory.
Application dates, fees, and the scores that receive an interview or an offer change with each intake. Flinders publishes them on the Doctor of Medicine course page and in the domestic MD application guide. The sections below describe the standing shape of the program.
- Flinders medicine: the Doctor of Medicine
- Flinders University medicine entry requirements
- Flinders University Northern Territory Medical Program
- University of Adelaide vs Flinders University medicine
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Flinders medicine questions
- How do you get into medicine at Flinders?
- Is a Flinders graduate application part of GEMSAS?
- What GAMSAT result does Flinders ask for?
- What is the Flinders Northern Territory Medical Program?
- Is CDU Menzies the same program as the Flinders NT medical program?
- How does medicine at Flinders compare with Adelaide?
- Do Flinders school leavers sit an interview?
- Can the whole Flinders MD be studied in rural South Australia?
Flinders medicine: the Doctor of Medicine
The Flinders MD is a four-year full-time degree. The Australian Medical Council accredits it as a primary medical program. Its 2025 decision runs to 31 March 2028. Graduates can apply for provisional registration with the Medical Board of Australia, and registration then depends on a year as a hospital intern. In South Australia those intern places are allocated by South Australian Medical Education and Training. What happens from graduation through internship is covered in how to become a doctor in Australia. Sources: Flinders University, Doctor of Medicine, Australian Medical Council, accredited medical schools, and the 2025 Flinders accreditation report.
Teaching is in person. The MD requires face-to-face attendance, and earlier postgraduate study does not shorten it. Years 1 and 2 are based at a Flinders campus in South Australia or the Northern Territory. Clinical rotations in Years 3 and 4 are mainly in the same jurisdiction. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
Learning moves from foundational medicine and early clinical skills into hospital and community placements, organised around health and illness, the doctor–patient relationship, health and society, professionalism and leadership, and science and scholarship. Placements are compulsory, and students meet the immunisation rules of the state or territory plus any extra rules of the placement site. Bedford Park teaching is co-located with Flinders Medical Centre. Placements also use the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network, the Northern Adelaide Local Health Network, Royal Darwin Hospital, and regional services. Source: Flinders University, Doctor of Medicine.
The same degree is taught in three settings: Bedford Park in Adelaide, the South Australian Rural Medical (SARM) Program, and the Northern Territory Medical Program described later on this page. Source: Flinders University, Doctor of Medicine.
Studying the MD in rural South Australia
SARM is the full four years of the Flinders MD lived in rural South Australia. Flinders normally offers up to 60 places. Years 1 and 2 are in the Riverland, based at Renmark, or at Mount Gambier in the Greater Green Triangle, with about 30 places at each. Students then nominate Years 3 and 4 in the Riverland Mallee Coorong, the Limestone Coast and Hamilton, or the Barossa Hills and Fleurieu. They live in the location they are offered. Flinders describes subsidised accommodation and travel for rotations in Years 3 and 4, and students arrange their own housing for the first two years. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
South Australian places, including SARM, are Commonwealth supported and include bonded and non-bonded places. A bonded place carries the Commonwealth return-of-service terms. Place types for the current intake are in the Flinders guide. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
Students already in the MD can apply, in the last half of Year 2, to add a Master of Public Health or a PhD. An MD offer does not include either extra degree. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
Flinders University medicine entry requirements
Flinders University medicine entry requirements split by the applicant's starting point. Graduates apply for the four-year MD with a bachelor degree, a Flinders GPA, a GAMSAT ® result, and an interview. School leavers who have not started higher education apply for a six-year Bachelor of Clinical Sciences and Doctor of Medicine, using Year 12 results and UCAT ® ANZ, with no interview. In the Northern Territory that school-leaver route starts at Charles Darwin University and continues as the Flinders MD. The Territory route is set out with the Northern Territory program below.
Graduate entry to the Flinders MD
A domestic graduate applicant holds a bachelor degree, or is in the final year of one, has a Flinders-equivalent non-weighted GPA of 5.00 or higher, and holds a valid GAMSAT ® result with at least 50 in each section. Those are the floors for an application to be considered. They do not by themselves produce an interview. Sources: Flinders University, Doctor of Medicine, and the MD domestic application guide.
The bachelor can be from Flinders or from another institution Flinders accepts as equivalent. A one-year bachelor, such as the Flinders Bachelor of Letters (Health) (Graduate Entry), or a one-year honours degree, can be the qualifying award when the guide's completion deadlines are met. There is no ten-year rule, so a bachelor completed more than ten years ago can still be used. A graduate certificate, diploma, masters, or PhD is left out of the weighted GPA and the selection rank. Someone whose latest bachelor is under 5.00 can build a new GPA with a further one-year bachelor or honours year. Flinders does not pre-assess a GPA, a sub-quota, or an overseas qualification. The Flinders GPA calculator estimates the unweighted eligibility GPA. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
What the GAMSAT ® is covers the exam itself. Flinders calculates the overall score by weighting Section III twice and Sections I and II once, then dividing by four. A result is normally valid for up to four consecutive intakes. The domestic guide lists which sittings count for the current intake. An applicant with more than one valid result nominates a single sitting, and Flinders collects that result from ACER using the candidate number on the form. How to read a score is on GAMSAT ® scores. Study for the exam starts with GAMSAT ® preparation. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
Shortlisting for interview uses the overall GAMSAT ® score, compared with other applicants in the same sub-quota, after the GPA and section minima are met. Flinders publishes the latest interview cut-offs on the MD course page and says they move with the applicant pool and the places in each sub-quota. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
The interview is a semi-structured panel, normally about 45 to 50 minutes, using a common set of scenarios. It covers motivation, learning style, communication, a pro-social attitude, and decision-making. Metropolitan Adelaide applicants are seen in person for South Australian places, and metropolitan Darwin applicants are seen in person for Darwin places. Applicants interstate, or more than 60 kilometres outside the relevant city, may be interviewed on Microsoft Teams. The interview has to be passed. Only then does Flinders calculate the weighted GPA. Schools that use a multiple mini interview explain that station format in the guide to MMIs. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
An offer rank weights three results equally: the interview score, the weighted GPA from the most recent bachelor, and the overall GAMSAT ® score. The weighted GPA uses the last three full-time-equivalent years, with the most recent year counted most heavily. The domestic guide sets out the exact weights, including the version used when the bachelor is still underway, and the unweighted treatment of a completed one-year bachelor. Marks from other universities are converted to the Flinders scale. Academic prizes, CVs, work experience, reference letters, and special-consideration statements are not part of selection. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
The graduate application is lodged with Flinders. GEMSAS is the application system for ten participating medical schools, and Flinders is not one of them, so a GEMSAS preference does not include this MD. How those ten schools weight GAMSAT ®, GPA, and interviews is on medical school entry requirements. Source: GEMSAS, participating medical schools.
Domestic applicants for South Australia and the Northern Territory are Australian citizens, Australian permanent residents, and humanitarian visa holders. New Zealand citizens are domestic applicants for South Australian places and are ineligible for the Northern Territory Medical Program. An international student who later gains permanent residency keeps the fee status of the original offer. International applicants use a separate guide and need a valid GAMSAT ® or MCAT. Score floors and fees for that route are in the international application guide. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
The location chosen on the form stays fixed. Applicants can seek Bedford Park, a SARM site, Darwin, or a second preference recorded on the form. A SARM offer stays tied to that place type and that town. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
Bedford Park places are divided into sub-quotas. An applicant is considered for every sub-quota they qualify for, and Flinders issues one offer under one sub-quota. In the current domestic guide the normal pattern is:
- A maximum of 75% of Bedford Park places for applicants whose most recent bachelor, or a higher Flinders award such as a graduate certificate, diploma, or masters, is from Flinders. A later bachelor from another university removes this sub-quota. A sub-bachelor award does not create it.
- Within those Flinders-graduate places, a maximum of 30% reserved where the most recent Flinders bachelor is medical science (the vision science and laboratory medicine versions are excluded), medical science (accelerated), medical science (honours) taken as a four-year degree, paramedicine (including the earlier paramedic science award), or public health.
- A minimum of 25% of Bedford Park places for applicants whose most recent bachelor is from another university.
- A minimum of 28% of South Australian places for applicants from an Australian rural background, defined as at least ten years cumulative, or five years consecutive, in ASGS Remoteness Areas 2 to 5.
- Up to five Bedford Park places for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants.
- Up to four Bedford Park places for people who hold, or have held, an Australian humanitarian visa, including those who are now citizens or permanent residents.
Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
The medical science, paramedicine, and public health degrees in that reserved list are prior qualifications for the MD. They are separate courses from the medicine program.
SARM uses its own order: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants from anywhere in Australia; then non-Indigenous applicants from rural South Australia; then other South Australian applicants; then rural applicants from outside South Australia; then everyone else. Applicants from a non-rural background can apply and are considered if places remain after rural-background applicants. For this priority, a South Australian resident will, by the start of the MD, have lived at a permanent South Australian address for at least two of the previous six years, or for at least five years since starting primary school. Each sub-quota and priority asks for its own Flinders statutory declaration by the deadline in the guide. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander graduates who do not hold a GAMSAT ® result can apply through the Indigenous Entry Stream for South Australia and the Northern Territory. The stream uses a one-week Preparation for Medicine Program and a ten-week online science course, Flinders University Extended Learning in Science. Its application window is published in the domestic guide, separate from the main MD round. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
School-leaver entry in South Australia
School leavers in Adelaide apply for the Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / Doctor of Medicine. It is six years full time at Bedford Park: two years of clinical sciences, then the four-year MD if the student has a GPA of at least 5.0 at the end of the second year. The bachelor is completed on successful completion of the first year of the MD, and the student graduates with both awards. The course handbook says a student who misses that GPA can transfer to the Bachelor of Medical Science. That is an exit award from this pathway, and a different degree from the MD. Sources: Flinders University, Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / Doctor of Medicine, and the Bachelor of Clinical Sciences pathway in the Flinders handbook.
Applicants have completed Year 12, or an equivalent such as the International Baccalaureate, and have no higher-education record. A Flinders extension topic taken during Year 12 still leaves the applicant eligible. There are no subject prerequisites. Ranking is 90% Year 12 results and 10% a UCAT ® ANZ derived score from the four current sections (Verbal Reasoning, Decision Making, Quantitative Reasoning, and Situational Judgement), and there is no interview. The course page sets a minimum ATAR of 95.00 to be considered and says an ATAR of 95 or above, after adjustment factors, is what applicants should expect if they want to be competitive. The latest offer profile is on that same page. Source: Flinders University, Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / Doctor of Medicine.
UCAT ® for medicine shows which Australian programs ask for the test. UCAT ® scores explains the scale. Applications go through SATAC, and the current SATAC code is on the Flinders course page. Flinders describes about 35 domestic places a year at Bedford Park, an Indigenous sub-quota of up to five places, and a rural and remote sub-quota for applicants who have lived in ASGS-RA 2 to 5 for five consecutive years or ten years in total. The documents SATAC asks for are on the course page. Source: Flinders University, Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / Doctor of Medicine.
Flinders University Northern Territory Medical Program
The Flinders University Northern Territory Medical Program is the four-year Flinders MD, studied in the Territory. Teaching is based in Darwin, with clinical placements that include Darwin, Alice Springs, Katherine, Nhulunbuy, and Tennant Creek. Students are expected to complete a remote placement in Year 3 or Year 4. The program began in 2011, using a teaching building on Charles Darwin University's Casuarina campus and rooms at Royal Darwin Hospital. Sources: Flinders University, Northern Territory Medical Program, and undergraduate entry to the NT Medical Program.
Graduate entry uses the same GPA, GAMSAT ®, and interview rules as the rest of the MD, then a separate place type. The domestic guide describes up to 24 employer-reserved places under the NT Bonded Medical Scheme. The NT Government funds the tuition, and the offer is conditional on a return-of-service deed. Flinders' Territory pathway pages describe that commitment as two years working in the Northern Territory after graduation, including the intern year. Sources: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide, undergraduate entry to the NT Medical Program, and Charles Darwin University, Bachelor of Clinical Sciences.
Graduate selection follows this order:
- An Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicant who meets the NT residency test.
- Another applicant who meets that residency test.
- An Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander applicant who does not meet it.
- Another applicant who does not meet it.
For this test, an NT resident is an Australian citizen or permanent resident who, by the start of the course, will have lived at a permanent NT address for at least two of the last six years, or for at least five years since starting primary school. Source: Flinders University, MD domestic application guide.
School leavers, and applicants with no more than one year of higher education, can start in Charles Darwin University's Bachelor of Clinical Sciences and move into the Flinders MD. Years 1 and 2 are CDU topics at Casuarina. In Year 3 the student finishes that bachelor and starts the Flinders MD in the same year. After that first MD year the bachelor is awarded on a joint CDU and Flinders parchment, and Flinders awards the MD. The whole route is six years in the Territory. Progression asks for every unit to be passed and a GPA of at least 5.00. Flinders and CDU both describe 12 places a year. Preference goes to NT residents and First Nations applicants, and other Australian citizens and permanent residents may apply. On the standard pathway, ranking is 90% Year 12 performance and 10% UCAT ® ANZ. CDU also publishes a First Nations entry process that does not use UCAT ®, and it publishes the ATAR levels it treats as competitive, including a lower figure for First Nations applicants. CDU's published place split is five places for NT residents, five for NT First Nations applicants, and two for First Nations applicants from elsewhere in Australia. Applications go through SATAC. Sources: Flinders University, undergraduate entry to the NT Medical Program, and Charles Darwin University, Bachelor of Clinical Sciences.
CDU's Clinical Sciences page currently describes the UCAT ® derived score in two places: one using the three cognitive sections plus Situational Judgement, and an older sentence that still names five sections, including Abstract Reasoning. Read the formula on the current CDU page. The test applicants sit now is the four-section UCAT ® ANZ explained on UCAT ® scores.
Charles Darwin University also teaches the CDU Menzies Medical Program, its own five-year Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / Doctor of Medicine. The Australian Medical Council accredits that program separately from the Flinders MD. Flinders says the two medical degrees are separate, and a student in CDU Menzies cannot simply transfer into the Flinders NTMP. The school-leaver route above is the CDU Bachelor of Clinical Sciences built as the feeder into Flinders. The side-by-side of the two Darwin programs is on the Australian medical schools directory. Sources: Australian Medical Council, accredited medical schools, Charles Darwin University, CDU Menzies Medical Program, and Flinders University, undergraduate entry to the NT Medical Program.
University of Adelaide vs Flinders University medicine
Adelaide University and Flinders University both teach AMC-accredited medicine in South Australia. They award different degrees and assess applicants at different points.
Adelaide University's program is the Bachelor of Medical Studies and Doctor of Medicine, six years integrated. The bachelor is the first three years. The Doctor of Medicine is the next three, and Adelaide states that this MD does not accept direct applications. Entry to it is by completing the Bachelor of Medical Studies. The Australian Medical Council lists the provider as Adelaide University, the current primary program as the Bachelor of Medical Studies and Doctor of Medicine, and an MBBS as a teach-out award. Sources: Adelaide University, Doctor of Medicine, Bachelor of Medical Studies, and the Australian Medical Council, accredited medical schools.
On Adelaide's Bachelor of Medical Studies page, applicants sit UCAT ® ANZ and attend an interview if invited. Those who meet the academic minimum are selected for interview on UCAT ® results. Eligible applicants are then ranked on a combination of UCAT ®, the interview, and academic results. The same page says a person who has completed more than two years of undergraduate study, or any third-year course, is ineligible for that bachelor and should look at graduate medicine pathways. A shorter higher-education route on the page is limited to applicants whose only tertiary record is from Adelaide University or its antecedent universities, the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia, and who have completed at least one year and no more than two. Adelaide publishes the academic threshold, subject prerequisites, and the current interview format on that degree page. Source: Adelaide University, Bachelor of Medical Studies.
Flinders offers graduates a four-year MD assessed with GPA, GAMSAT ®, and a panel interview, lodged directly with Flinders. It offers school leavers a six-year Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / MD, assessed with Year 12 results and UCAT ® ANZ, with no interview at entry, lodged through SATAC. A school leaver choosing a South Australian program from Year 12 is choosing between those two shapes. A person who already holds a bachelor applies to the Flinders MD. Domestic applicants for Adelaide's Bachelor of Medical Studies also apply through SATAC. International applicants for that bachelor apply to Adelaide University directly. Sources: SATAC, undergraduate key dates, and Adelaide University, Bachelor of Medical Studies. UCAT ® or GAMSAT ® sets out which exam belongs to which kind of pathway.
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| Comparison Comparison |
Flinders University Flinders University |
Adelaide University |
|---|---|---|
| Degree Degree |
Four-year MD. School leavers can take a six-year Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / MD. Four-year MD. School leavers can take a six-year Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / MD. |
Six-year Bachelor of Medical Studies and Doctor of Medicine. The MD is the second three years and does not take direct applications. Six-year Bachelor of Medical Studies and Doctor of Medicine. The MD is the second three years and does not take direct applications. |
| Admissions test Admissions test |
GAMSAT ® for the graduate MD. UCAT ® ANZ for Clinical Sciences. GAMSAT ® for the graduate MD. UCAT ® ANZ for Clinical Sciences.
| UCAT ® ANZ for the Bachelor of Medical Studies. UCAT ® ANZ for the Bachelor of Medical Studies.
|
| Interview Interview |
Panel interview for graduate entry, which must be passed. No interview for the South Australian Clinical Sciences pathway. Panel interview for graduate entry, which must be passed. No interview for the South Australian Clinical Sciences pathway. |
Interview if invited, with invitations based on UCAT ® once the academic minimum is met. Interview if invited, with invitations based on UCAT ® once the academic minimum is met.
|
| Where to apply Where to apply |
Graduate MD: direct to Flinders. Clinical Sciences: SATAC. Graduate MD: direct to Flinders. Clinical Sciences: SATAC. |
Bachelor of Medical Studies: SATAC for domestic applicants; Adelaide University directly for international applicants. Bachelor of Medical Studies: SATAC for domestic applicants; Adelaide University directly for international applicants. |
Both universities describe a completed program as the route to an internship and provisional registration. Sources: Flinders University, Doctor of Medicine, and Adelaide University, Bachelor of Medical Studies.
Australian medical degree rankings are on the MD ranking page.
Flinders medicine questions
How do you get into medicine at Flinders?
Graduates apply to Flinders for the four-year MD. They need a bachelor degree, a Flinders-equivalent GPA of at least 5.00, a valid GAMSAT ® result of at least 50 in each section, and a pass in the panel interview. School leavers with no university record apply through SATAC for the six-year Bachelor of Clinical Sciences / MD at Bedford Park, ranked on Year 12 results and UCAT ® ANZ, with no interview. Territory school leavers start in Charles Darwin University's Bachelor of Clinical Sciences. Dates, fees, and the scores that receive offers are on the current Flinders pages.
Is a Flinders graduate application part of GEMSAS?
Graduate applications are lodged with Flinders. GEMSAS lists ten participating medical schools, and Flinders is not one of them. A GEMSAS preference list does not include the Flinders MD.
What GAMSAT result does Flinders ask for?
An application needs at least 50 in each GAMSAT ® section and a valid result. Interview shortlisting then uses the overall score inside each sub-quota. Flinders publishes those interview cut-offs on the MD course page because they change with the applicant pool. The section minimum is the floor for being considered.
What is the Flinders Northern Territory Medical Program?
It is the four-year Flinders MD taught in the Northern Territory, with a base in Darwin and placements across the Territory. Graduate places are funded by the NT Government and come with a return-of-service agreement. Flinders describes that commitment as two years working in the Territory after graduation, including the intern year. School leavers can enter through CDU's Bachelor of Clinical Sciences.
Is CDU Menzies the same program as the Flinders NT medical program?
They are separate AMC-accredited degrees and separate applications. CDU Menzies is Charles Darwin University's own five-year undergraduate MD. The Flinders Northern Territory Medical Program is the Flinders MD. The school-leaver path into Flinders is a different CDU course, the Bachelor of Clinical Sciences, and Flinders says students cannot simply transfer from CDU Menzies into the Flinders MD.
How does medicine at Flinders compare with Adelaide?
Adelaide University teaches a six-year Bachelor of Medical Studies and Doctor of Medicine. The MD does not take direct applications, and entry to the bachelor uses UCAT ® ANZ and an interview. Flinders teaches a four-year graduate MD, using GPA, GAMSAT ®, and a panel interview, and a six-year school-leaver pathway using Year 12 results and UCAT ® ANZ with no interview. Someone who already has a bachelor looks at the Flinders MD. Adelaide's page sets the limited cases in which some earlier university study can still be used for its bachelor.
Do Flinders school leavers sit an interview?
The South Australian Bachelor of Clinical Sciences pathway has no interview. Offers are ranked from Year 12 results and UCAT ® ANZ. Graduate entry does use an interview: a panel of about 45 to 50 minutes, which the applicant has to pass.
Can the whole Flinders MD be studied in rural South Australia?
Yes. The South Australian Rural Medical Program is the full four years in rural South Australia. Flinders normally offers up to 60 places, with Years 1 and 2 in the Riverland or Mount Gambier and later years in other rural regions. Selection follows a published priority order, and a SARM offer stays tied to that place.